Buck Rogers:  A Stitch in Time
by Keith Shaw
Summary: Buck and Wilma accidently travel back in time to 1987. When Buck realizes the possibilities, he is determined to try to stop the holocaust at all costs even if it means changing the future of Planet Earth and the entire galaxy.
1. Chapter 1

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

"A Stitch in Time"

by

Keith M. Shaw

Chapter 1

Colonel Wilma Deering stepped through the open door. Doctor Elias Huer looked up from his cluttered desk and smiled warmly.

"Ah, Colonel Deering. I heard you had just returned from your training flight."

"Yes, Dr. Huer. The officer on duty in the flight deck said you were looking for me."

Huer nodded. "Indeed. I have a job for you and Buck. I tried calling his apartment, but he appears to be out. No one is answering."

"Have you tried Twiki?"

"Yes, I have. Twiki isn't answering either."

"That's odd," Wilma mused almost to herself. "It's not like Twiki to ignore a call from the Directorite."

"We could use the tracer beacon in Twiki's core to find his location," suggested the small computer sitting on the desk. "Chances are very good that if you find Twiki, you will also find Captain Rogers nearby."

"Good idea, Dr. Theopolis," Huer said. He stood up and went to one of the monitors on the wall. He typed in a couple buttons and waited for a reply. A map of Buck's apartment complex immediately displayed on the screen. A flashing blue light appeared at the bottom of the map.

"Twiki appears to be in the basement of Buck's apartment building."

"I wonder what he's doing down there?" Wilma asked.

"You can ask him when you find him," Huer grinned.

"According to the sensors, you may want to hurry, Colonel," Theo said excitedly. "Twiki appears to be overheating for some reason. At his current rate of acceleration, he will melt his internal circuitry in less than twenty minutes."

"I'm on it!" Wilma said as she ran out the door.

She hurried as fast as she could to the apartment building. She bypassed the elevator and took the stairs to the basement. Quickly she rushed toward the room that had been displayed on Dr. Huer's monitor. As she neared the room, she could hear grunts of pain and an occasional thumping sound against the walls. She broke into a sprint. When at last she reached the right door, she cautiously placed her ear against the metal. A loud thump sounded in her ear and then another grunt. Quickly she fumbled for her all-access key card. She swore silently as it fell to the floor. She picked it up and swiped the key in the slot beside the door. She drew her pistol and rushed into the room. Just as she stepped into the room, a small spherical object wizzed by her head. Instinctively she fell to the ground and trained her pistol toward the front of the room.

"Wilma!" Buck exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"  
Buck stepped over to her and extended his hand to help her up. She simply stared at the object in Buck's other hand. Twiki stepped up to her and almost appeared to smile.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Hi ya, Wilma."

She noticed that Twiki also had some kind of paddle in his little hand. A small spherical ball slowly rolled to a stop against her knee. Wilma looked up at Buck.

"What are you doing?" she huffed. "I ran here all the way from Dr. Huer's office because I thought you might be in trouble!"

"How'd you find us?"

She took a moment to catch her breath and then allowed Buck to help her to her feet. "We used Twiki's internal tracing beacon to find him. And Dr. Theopolis said that Twiki was beginning to overheat!"

Buck chuckled as he picked up the ball. "It's called racquetball," he explained.

Wilma cocked her head to one side. "Racquet…ball?"

"Yep. I found these rackets in the archives and then I had Dr. Juneas construct me some rubber balls. It's an old Earth sport."

Wilma took a deep breath. "You mean to tell me I rushed all the way over here because you and Twiki are playing a game?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Sure thing, Hot Stuff."

She glared at Twiki for a moment before breaking into a slight grin. "You two are something, you know?"  
"Hey Twiki," Buck started. "Give Wilma your racket. Let her try a couple hits."

Wilma's eyes widened. She shook her head vehemently and waved her hands. "Oh, no! I'm just a messenger. Dr. Huer sent me to find you. Apparently he's got a job for us. He tried to call you, but you weren't answering."

"Oh, come on, Wilma," Buck coaxed. "Just a couple hits. It won't take long." He took Twiki's racket and handed it to her. She hesitated for a moment before finally accepting the racket. "Here, you want to hold it like this," he instructed. "And then you put this strap around your wrist so you don't drop the racket."

Wilma shook her head. "I don't know about this, Buck."

He smiled reassuringly. "There's nothing to it. All you do is bounce the ball and then hit it with the racket as hard as you can so the ball bounces off of that front wall. I'll be standing over there. After the ball hits the wall, then it's my turn to hit it. We take turns hitting the ball against the wall until someone either misses the ball or the ball doesn't hit the wall. Easy, right?"

"Buck, we don't have time-"

"It'll be alright. This will only take a minute. Here's the ball." He moved forward and to the right. "Now all you have to do is bounce the ball and then hit it with your racket."

Wilma looked at the ball and her racket for a long minute. Finally she shrugged her shoulders and bounced the ball. She swung the racket as hard as she could but missed the ball. It simply bounced away. Buck retrieved the ball and bounced it back to her.

"Try it again. Try not swinging quite so hard. Keep your eye on the ball when you're trying to hit it."

She took a deep breath. "My eye on the ball?" she muttered. Once again she bounced the ball and swung her racket. The ball screamed forward and impacted Buck squarely in the middle of his forehead. He fell to the floor in a heap as the ball bounced back toward Wilma. He sat up as Wilma rushed to his side.

"I'm so sorry, Buck! Are you alright?"

He raised his hand to his head to feel the welt already beginning to form. "Yeah, I'm fine," he replied slowly. You really laid into that one, didn't you?"

"I'm sorry, Buck!"

"You're supposed to hit the wall, not me!"

Twiki stepped up behind Wilma. "Beep-be-de-de-beep: that's the way to use your head, Buck."

Buck gave Twiki a sarcastic smirk. "Thanks."

"I'm so sorry, Buck. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I've been hit harder. I don't remember exactly when, but I'm sure I've been hit harder than that."

"How can I make it up to you?"

He waved his hands as he slowly stood up. "Don't worry about it. Maybe we should do this another day." He sighed heavily. "You said Dr. Huer is looking for us?"

"Yes, that's why I'm here. He sent me to find you."

Buck nodded, grinned slightly. "Fine. Let's go see Dr. Huer. Right now I could stand seeing a doctor."

Wilma looked at him sheepishly.

Buck glanced at Wilma out of the corner of his eye. "Next time I'm gonna teach you how to play chess. It's a lot less… physical."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When Buck and Wilma walked into Doctor Huer's office, Huer took one look at Buck's forehead and rose to his feet slowly. "Good Heavens, what happened to you?" he asked incredulously.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Wilma hit him with a ball."

Doctor Huer looked at Wilma. "Colonel Deering, I merely sent you to find Captain Rogers; not to disable him."

"I didn't mean to!"

"No, no, it's alright," Buck interrupted. "Really. I have a hard head, fortunately! So what's up? Wilma told me you've got a job for us."

"Yes, indeed I have. Our research and development team has been working on a particular project for a very long time and they believe they have a working prototype."

"That's great!" Buck said. "What type of prototype?"

"They have been working on a device which would render our starfighters virtually invisible to enemy ships, both visibly and on radar."

Buck nodded. "Sounds great. Is that possible?"

"In theory, it is possible," Doctor Theopolis announced. "In fact I myself have been on the development team since its inception."

"That'd be awesome if it worked. So what do you want us to do?"

"We have outfitted a starfighter with the new device," Doctor Huer said. "There is an element of risk involved. Of course, I can not order either of you to test it."

Buck smiled, waved his hand. "You won't need to. I'm in!"

"Me too," Wilma smiled.

"Splendid. I'll inform the team to make final preparations. Meet them on the flight deck tomorrow morning at o-eight hundred."

"Sounds good. Oh, and Doc: just one thing," Buck said. "Please don't say, 'Final' preparations."

Doctor Huer grinned, nodded. "Of course. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

Buck stood at the balcony and silently stared westward into the "setting sun". He closed his eyes briefly to remember a real sunset. Somewhere in the back of his mind, synapses were comparing the two images. He sighed heavily as he glimpsed the crowd of people visiting "Sunset Balcony" as this place was known. Once again he gazed out across the sky.

A pair of metal footsteps sounded on the balcony and almost immediately Buck recognized the pattern. However, he did not turn to confirm it.

"Good evening, Captain Rogers."

He finally turned to face Twiki and Doctor Theopolis who hung from the small drone's neck. "Hi, guys," he said dryly.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Howdy, Partner."

"It seems to be a fine turnout for this evening's sunset," Theo said almost proudly. "Are you enjoying the colors?"

"Mauve with a hint of cinnamon?" Buck asked.

Theo did not answer. Buck could almost imagine Theo smiling proudly.

Buck shrugged his shoulders once, turned back to face the sky through the transparent dome. "You know, I've been here almost a year now and I just can't get used to these… fake sunsets."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: what's wrong, Buck?"

"Nothing. Just thinking."

"Where's Wilma?"

"Don't know. I told her I probably wouldn't be good company tonight."

"What's wrong, Captain Rogers? Does your mood have something to do with the flight of the prototype starfighter tomorrow morning?"

"Huh? Oh, no. Nothing like that. I'm looking forward to that. I've always enjoyed test flying new planes."

"Then what is it, Buck?"

Again he shrugged. "What's today's date?"

"May twelfth," Theo replied.

Buck nodded. "That's what I thought."

"What's the problem?"

Buck hesitated for a long moment. "Today was Jennifer's birthday."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Bummer."

Buck simply nodded.

Twiki placed his small metal hand on top of Buck's on the balcony railing. Buck looked down and grinned slightly at the ambuquad. "Thanks, Twiki. I'll be alright. I was just thinking about the last time I saw her. It was the night before I launched." He took a deep breath and held it for a moment. At last he sighed heavily. "Maybe I'll just go back to my apartment and lie down."

"Have you had dinner yet?" Theo asked.

Buck shook his head. "No. I'm not really hungry. Maybe I'll go back and make some spaghetti. That was one of her favorite meals. Spaghetti and classic rock."

"Speaking of music," Theo started. "Were you able to have someone look at your computer yet? You mentioned the other day that it wasn't working right."

He shook his head again. "No, not yet. I haven't had time to work on it."

"Then we have something that may be helpful to you. Twiki…"

A small panel opened on Twiki's chest. He reached in and pulled out a small, pen shaped object and handed it to Buck.

"Hey, great!" he said sarcastically. "What is it?"

"This is an electronic manipulator. This may help you get your computer working again."

"Great. How does it work?"

"There is a button at the top. When you depress the button, tiny sensors inside the device recognize your DNA and relatively accurately deciphers your thought processes."

Buck furrowed his eyebrows. "This thing is going to read my mind?"

"Not exactly… but something along those lines."

"You said 'relatively accurately.' How accurately?"

"It is still in the experimental stage so individual trials may vary depending upon the individual but initial tests indicate a success rate of eighty-one percent."

Buck looked at the pen dubiously. "Nothing wrong with trying it. Thanks, Theo. I'll let you know if it works." He stuck the pen into the breast pocket of his flight jacket. "It looks like the show's over," he said as he used his thumb to indicate the fading sunset. "I'll see you guys later. Good night."

"Good night, Captain Rogers."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Buck?"

Buck paused for a moment and rested his hand on the top of Twiki's head. "I'll be okay Twiki. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Slowly Buck turned and followed the crowd back into the inner city.

Buck stepped into his apartment and went straight to the computer on the wall. He pulled out the pen and hesitated for a moment. He tapped the top.

"Computer: play me some music."

Almost instantly the room was filled with the sound of a rhythmic beat underlying a hard rocking synthesizer. Buck winced slightly. "No, no, I'm not in the mood for Andromeda tonight. Sorry guys. Try again."

The music instantly changed to the sound of rap music. Buck's eyes widened and he cocked his head. "What the-? No, not that!"

He tapped the pen's button again. When the music started playing again, Buck smiled and nodded his approval. "Yeah, some Bad Company. That's much better." He looked at the pen, the electronic manipulator. He smiled and nodded. "Not bad. I'm gonna have to tell Theo that you worked."

He turned to face the small kitchenette in the apartment. "Now to find out if the replicator can make some decent spaghetti sauce."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The incessant sound of the door buzzer permeated the room until even Buck was wide awake. He rubbed his eyes and stiff neck.

"I'm coming," he hollered toward the door.

He stumbled across the apartment to open the door. Wilma smiled at him broadly. "Morning!" she said cheerfully.

He looked at her briefly before sudden realization hit him. "The flight!" he almost screamed.

He rushed back into the apartment and grabbed his flight suit. "Be right back!" he said as he rushed into the bathroom. Wilma entered the apartment and allowed the door to close silently.

"Buck, are you alright?" she called through the closed bathroom door. "It's not like you to oversleep and be late for a mission."

"Yeah, I'm fine," a muffled voice sounded through the door. "I was just having a dream that was so… realistic."

"About what?"

The door opened and Buck came out dressed in the same white uniform as Wilma. He simply smiled sheepishly. "Oh nothing important. Shall we go?"

Together they traveled to the top-secret hangar beneath the Directorate building. When they entered the private space port, they instantly saw a single starfighter sitting in the middle of the hangar. Several men dressed in white lab coats circled the starfighter while one stood near the ladder to the hatch. He carried an electronic clipboard filled with information on the prototype. When Buck and Wilma entered the hangar, he turned to face them. Impatiently he waved at them.

"You must be my pilots," he said when they were close enough to hear.

"Yes, I'm Captain Rogers."

"Colonel Deering."

He nodded once as he looked back down at his clipboard. "You're late."

Buck glanced at the watch Princess Ardala had given him recently. "Really? I have two till."

"Then your timepiece is wrong," the old man stated matter of factly. "I am Doctor Avery. Please allow me to introduce you to your controls."

He started up the ladder. Buck glanced at Wilma and shook his head. "Who spit in his Cheerios?"

"I can hear you, Captain."

Wilma smiled and waved Buck to climb the ladder. He shrugged his shoulders and climbed up into the spacious cockpit, followed closely by Wilma.

"Who is going to be the pilot?" Avery asked.

Buck raised his hand. "That would be me," he said as he started toward the command chair at the left of the cockpit.

"You'll want this seat then, Captain Rogers," Avery said, indicating the seat to the right of the cockpit.

Buck furrowed his eyes, but didn't reply. He changed directions to sit in the right hand seat as Wilma took the seat to the left. Buck leaned over to whisper into Wilma's ear.

"Must be a British model."

"British?" Wilma asked.

"Drives on the right instead of the left," Buck explained. "You know: British."

"What is 'British'?" Avery asked.

Buck simply rolled his eyes. "Nothing."

Avery nodded impatiently. "I assume you are familiar with the controls of a starfighter?" he asked indignantly.

Buck nodded. "Yeah, I've flown a couple here and there," he answered. "Never a British model, though," he added under his breath.

"Good. The controls for this starfighter are almost identical to your ordinary starfighter, with only a few modifications. For this experiment, we will have two ships. You will be flying this one which is equipped with the experimental device and we have another pilot flying a normal starfighter which will monitor your progress from a visual distance of a thousand meters. How much has Doctor Huer told you about this prototype?"

"Just that you're trying to make it invisible," Wilma replied quickly.

"Both visually and electronically," Buck added.

Avery nodded. "Yes. We will have someone following you in a starfighter to monitor you visually and we will also be watching you electronically from here. Now this little device here…" Doctor Avery rested his hand on an unfamiliar piece of equipment situated evenly between the two seats. "This is the real experiment. There is a gauge here that Colonel Deering will want to keep her eye on while the Captain flies the ship. This instrument here is the key to this experiment. In the laboratory we have had overwhelming success in making objects disappear when we activate this."

"Is it safe?" Wilma asked.

"If I didn't feel it was safe, then I wouldn't allow the two of you near it. Combat pilots are a rare commodity in New Chicago. I wouldn't unnecessarily risk losing two of our best. Now of course we haven't tried anything quite to this scale of experimentation yet but we believe all the calculations are correct. When this gauge reads 'eighty-seven', the copilot will pull this lever all the way back like this."

He yanked on the lever until it rested horizontally with the arms of the seats. "Nothing happened," Buck noticed.

"Of course not," Avery smirked. "This gauge reads zero. Nothing is going to happen until the gauge reads eighty-seven."

"So where are you hiding the flux capacitor?"

Avery looked at Buck blankly. "The flux… what?"

Buck shook his head, smirked. "Never mind."

"What does this gauge measure?" Wilma asked curiously.

"I don't want to confuse you with technical talk which would only serve to confuse you from the main part of your mission. Just suffice it to say it is measuring our success for this mission." Avery looked up to see another figure walking across the hangar. "Ahh, the rest of our crew is here."

Buck looked out the hatch to see Twiki and Doctor Theopolis rushing toward the starfighter. Buck quickly left his seat and helped Twiki up the ladder and into the cockpit.

"Hey, Doc. You coming too?"

"The development team thought it would be wise to have someone monitor conditions inside the experimental field as well as the external sensors," Theo replied.

"The development team?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: he just wanted to come along."

"I thought it would be a good idea to have someone along to monitor life signs, possible atmospheric changes, course changes… anything that could advance the …"

Buck chuckled. "Sure, Theo. The more the merrier. If you were planning to come along, why do you need Wilma and me?"

"As much as I hate to admit, some things still need a human hand and intuition. If something were to go wrong, you and Colonel Deering are more than capable of overcoming obstacles that I or a drone couldn't."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: I think that was a compliment, Buck."

He rolled his eyes, grinned. "Now I know something's up!"

Doctor Avery stood and headed for the ladder. "I believe everything is ready. Are you ready, Captain?"

"Sure thing. I'm ready to fire up the DeLorean."

Avery cocked his head to one side. "Excuse me? What's a DeLorean?"

Buck closed his eyes for a moment. "I'm ready when you are, Doc."

"Very well."

Avery left the cockpit and returned to the control room just off the hangar. Within moments the starfighter was zooming over the vast desert east of New Chicago.

"Everything is reporting as normal," Avery announced over the radio.

"Everything feels good here," Buck said. "This flies just like a regular starfighter."

"The gauge is reading twenty-five," Wilma reported.

Buck turned briefly to face Theo. "So what's going to happen when this thing hits eighty-seven and we disappear?"

"Presumably nothing."

"Presumably?"  
"This is the first time we've attempted this with a live human, before."

"A live human?" Buck repeated.

"We experimented with droids and they all performed admirably with no side affects or detriments. This is the first time with a human."

Buck nervously returned his eyes to the front of the cockpit. "That really instills me with a ton of confidence," he muttered.

"Don't worry, Captain Rogers. All the laboratory tests and mathematical computations indicate that it is perfectly safe for all involved."

"You're not helping my confidence any."

"Buck, the gauge reads seventy."

He glanced at Wilma. "Are we gonna be heroes for this?"

"If this works, we'll go down in history, just like Doctor Huer did for being the first Earthling to successfully navigate the stargate."

Buck glanced back at Theo. "You're at least going to owe me a dinner for this."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: and a movie," Twiki chimed in. "With dessert."

Buck furrowed his eyes. "No thanks, Twiki. That's not an image I needed."

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Heh, heh!"

"Eighty-five… eighty-six… eighty-seven…"

"Oh, man, this is heavy," Buck muttered as he closed his eyes for only a moment. "Okay, Wilma… throw the switch!"

She hesitated for a moment as she stared at Buck. He silently nodded once. "Here it goes," she said as she threw the switch to its horizontal position.

Suddenly the cockpit became filled with electrical discharges and static. Sparks flew all through the cockpit from console to wall and back to console. Buck fought the controls desperately to maintain course of the starfighter. The viewscreen almost instantly fogged up as the cockpit filled with smoke from the electrical discharges. The ship began to rotate as Buck slowly began to lose the battle for flight control.

"Buck! What's happening?"

"I don't know!" he yelled above the noise in the cockpit. "I can't see a thing! Instrumentation is going haywire! I'm flying blind! I can't be sure, but I think we're losing altitude! We're going down! Prepare to eject!"

The ship spun around several times until both pilots began to get dizzy. Wilma glanced behind her. Buck heard her gasp and turned to look at her.

"What is it, Wilma?"

"Buck! Theo… Twiki… they're… gone!"

"What do you mean gone?" Buck couldn't afford to look behind him as he continued to fight for control.

"Gone! As in they are no longer in the cockpit!"

"Where are they?"

"I don't know!"

Buck took a deep breath. "We'll have to worry about that later! I'm losing the ship! Prepare to eject!"

Wilma turned back around to face forward. "I'm ready!"

Buck slammed the palm of his hand on the ejection button. The canopy of the starfighter instantly blew off and both pilots were sent into the atmosphere. Buck continued to rotate in the air for several moments before the parachute deployed. He turned himself around to watch the starfighter completely disintegrate into the surrounding atmosphere. His eyes widened in disbelief as the ship simply vanished into thin air. He let his head droop forward dejectedly.

"Oh, man. I hope they don't take that out of my salary."

Then his eyes widened again. The ground below him was not a desert. He cocked his head to one side. He was floating to the ground in the middle of a massive forest. He glimpsed Wilma floating nearby but only one thing kept running through his mind: "Where in the world am I?"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Buck disengaged the parachute quickly, then began running toward where he'd seen Wilma disappear into the forest. It didn't take long for him to find her. He stood underneath the large tree and looked up at the screaming woman stuck in the branches. He fought the urge to laugh, but lost miserably.

"What are you laughing at?" she asked, embarrassed.

"I thought you were an expert at parachuting. They still do that in training, don't they?"

"Yes, we do… but we don't have any trees on Earth to get hung up on!"

"Just release your tether."

"I'm up too high!"

He shrugged. "You're only fifteen feet off the ground. When you land, lean forward and roll."

She took several minutes to finally convince herself to cut the rope. After she stopped rolling, Buck helped her to her feet. She looked indignantly at the parachute still stuck in the tree. Then she turned to Buck and looked at him sternly.

"Nobody finds out about this."  
Buck nodded seriously, and pretended to button his lips… then burst out laughing. Wilma rotated her body around looking at her new surroundings. "Any ideas where we are?" she asked.

Buck shrugged once he stopped laughing. "Not a clue. I was just about to ask you the same thing. I thought you said there were no forests left on Earth."

"There aren't. The holocaust burned them all down."

"Then where did these come from?"

She sighed heavily. "I don't know. Is it possible that we're not on Earth any more?"

Again Buck shrugged. "I don't know. I guess anything's possible."

Wilma turned sharply to face Buck. "What about Twiki and Theo? What do you thing happened to them?"

Buck's gaze trailed off into the patch of blue sky clearly visible through the trees. "Probably as gone as the ship is."

"What do you mean?"  
Buck paused. "What happened when you threw that switch?"

Wilma closed her eyes. "The cockpit became one big electrical storm."

"And where does electricity go?"

She thought for a moment, then lowered her head. "To metal."

Buck nodded. "That's probably why we're still alive. They soaked up the electrical discharges like a big lightning rod. They probably disintegrated just like the starfighter did… into thin air."

"Oh that's terrible."

"I know. Twiki was the best friend I had…, present company excluded," he quickly added.

"What about Princess Ardala?"

Buck snapped his fingers. "The princess!"

Wilma looked at him with a strange look on her face. "What?"

Buck tapped a button on the side of his watch. Nothing happened. "Huh, that's odd," he mumbled.

"What is?"  
"Ardala gave me this watch. She said if I ever needed anything, to hit this button. She said it was a direct line of communication to her personal… well, to her."

"Maybe we're out of range."

He shook his head. "No, it works in subspace. I should be able to reach her from anywhere in the galaxy."

"Well isn't that convenient?" Wilma said sarcastically.

Once more he shook his head. "Not really. It also means she can contact me from anywhere in the galaxy."

Wilma smiled. "Maybe she's busy with… Tiger Man."

Buck and Wilma exchanged brief glances, then both broke into laughter. "Not likely!" Buck commented.

"So what do you suggest we do?"

Buck looked around for a moment. "Well we're not going to find anything here. I say we start moving."

"Okay. Pick a direction."

Buck pointed over Wilma's shoulder. "We were flying East when we left New Chicago. I say we head west and try to head for home."

"How do you know that's west?"

He pointed toward the sun over his shoulder. "Sun rises in the east."

"How do you know it's morning?"  
He tapped the pants of her flight suit. "They're wet from the dew on the grass you rolled around in. You're talking to a former Eagle Scout. Any other questions?"  
She shook her head, pointed over her shoulder. "We head west."

They walked in relative silence for over forty-five minutes, each one thinking the same thing: where were they and what had happened to Twiki and Theo? Then suddenly a rustling sounded from underneath a bush and Wilma jumped back instinctively. Buck instantly had his gun in hand. A small, brown, furry creature exited the bush and ran across the forest floor in an erratic path. Buck smiled and holstered his gun. He turned to Wilma.

"Relax. It's just a rabbit."

They continued to walk in a westerly direction up and down hills until they came to a small stream running south. Buck looked up in the sky at the sun.

"Looks like it's about noon. Getting tired?"

Wilma nodded.

"We can rest here. Getting hungry?"

"What do you have in mind?"

He stepped upstream a couple yards to some bushes. He picked some of the reddish-black berries visible. After popping a few into his mouth, he handed some to Wilma. She looked at him dubiously.

"Raspberries," Buck said. "Try them. They're good."

"How do you know they're safe?"

"I just ate some."

"I know, but how do I know you won't keel over in a minute?"

Buck grinned and shook his head. He pointed to a couple half berries on the bush. "See them?"

She carefully inspected the half berries. "Uh-huh," she agreed.

"Birds have been picking at them. If these berries were poisonous, they wouldn't be eating them."

Hesitantly she looked at them, then finally put one into her mouth. A surprised look crossed her face. She looked at Buck and smiled. "They are good!"

"I told you. Trust the Eagle Scout."

Just then another rustling sounded followed by another rabbit scurrying through the underbrush. Without a second thought, Buck drew his weapon and fired. The rabbit dropped instantly to the ground.

"What are you doing?" Wilma asked.

Buck simply smiled. He retrieved the rabbit and rested it on a flat rock nearby. He then gathered up some dry sticks and arranged them in a circle. He fired his weapon at the sticks which quickly caught fire. He took another stick and jammed it through the rabbit. Finally he held the animal over the fire, slowly rotating it every so often. Wilma's eyes widened.

"You're not…" she started.

Buck smiled broadly. "Wait til you try this!"

When the rabbit was finished cooking, Buck pealed back the skin and smiled like a Cheshire cat. To Wilma's dismay he placed the piece of meat into his mouth. Buck's eyes closed and an expression crossed his face as if he were actually enjoying the meat. After savoring it for a long moment, Buck swallowed the piece of meat, then looked at Wilma.

"It's better with a little garlic salt, but it's not bad. Here, try a piece."

She waved her hands adamantly. "No, no. I don't think so."

Buck pulled off another piece of meat. "Do they teach your cadets survival skills during training?"

"Of course they do. You know that."

He nodded once. "Then what do you do when you are stranded in an alien environment, you're hungry, and you have no food packs with you?"

"Wait for help to come."

He smirked slightly. "What if you're stuck there for ten days?"

Wilma drooped her head, sighed. "You live off the land."

Buck smiled and handed her a piece of meat. "Here, try this. It's not going to kill you. I would say it tastes like chicken, but you don't know what chicken tastes like. Here. Trust me. Remember, I'm the-"

"Eagle Scout, yes, I remember."

Wilma reluctantly took the meat and slowly raised it toward her face. She closed her eyes, winced, raised the meat just close enough to brush against her lips. The smell of charred flesh, the image of the rabbit running across the grass, and the sound it made when it was killed all ran through her mind. Cautiously she nibbled a tiny piece off and accidentally let it brush against the taste buds of her tongue. Her eyes widened as the soft, juicy animal flesh slid down her throat.

"Not bad, huh?"

She shook her head. "It's disgusting!" she said as she took another small piece into her mouth. "But it is better than I thought it was going to be."

Buck grinned. "With a couple spices and a nice wine, I promise you it would simply melt in your mouth."

He handed her another piece but she shook her head. "No, this is enough."

Buck nodded in understanding, then ate the piece himself. "When we're done with lunch, we'll follow this creek south to wherever it leads."

Wilma glanced up. "I thought you said we were heading west."

"This creek has to end somewhere. People need water to survive. Follow the water, find the people."

"What if there are no people to find?"

Buck shrugged, then grinned mischievously. "Then it falls to us to populate the planet. Are you ready Eve?"

She looked up questioningly. "Eve?"

Buck shook his head, smirked. "Never mind. Long story!"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Buck and Wilma followed the creek downstream for over two hours in relative silence except for the wildlife in the forest. Buck mentioned that at least they didn't have to walk uphill now, which was no consolation to Wilma.

Suddenly they both saw a flash of light ahead of them and a brief sound of a powerful engine. They exchanged unknowing glances. Buck broke into a sprint forward with Wilma close behind. In a moment they broke into an opening of the forest. Fifty yards ahead of them the forest continued, but in between the two sections of forest was a straight, hard-topped road. Buck stepped onto the road and looked in both directions. A slight smile crossed his face as he returned to the side of the road.

"I guess we found some sign of civilization."

"Does this mean we don't have to populate the planet?" Wilma asked with a smirk.

Buck chuckled. "Come along, Eve. We can discuss that later!"

Once more they headed west, this time along the side of the road. When the road curved slightly, the sound of another engine reached their ears. A pickup truck whizzed by them heading east. Buck watched as the truck disappeared around the turn.

"What the…?"

"What's wrong?" Wilma asked.

He shook his head. "That looked like a Chevy! A Chevy S-10!"

"A what?" she asked with a bewildered look.

He stared around the turn for another few moments before returning Wilma's gaze. "Nothing. Maybe it's just my imagination. Let's keep walking."

They walked for half an hour before they heard another engine coming toward them. This time the vehicle in question was coming toward them in the same direction that they were walking. Instinctively Buck turned around, stuck his thumb up, and began to walk backwards slowly.

"What are you doing?"

"Hitchhiking. Trust me."

The compact car flew by without even looking. Buck watched intently as the old model car passed by. "That was an old Dart!"

"Huh?"

Buck shook his head. "What in the world is going on here? Where are we?"

Just then they heard another car engine coming toward them. "Wilma, do what I just did there. Put your thumb up like this…yeah, that's it."

"What am I doing?"

"We're looking for a ride. People are more likely to stop for a woman than they are for a man."

Buck stepped further off the side of the road. A blue pickup sped by the two, then quickly began to slow. It pulled off the road and came to a stop. Buck tapped Wilma on the shoulder and smiled.

"It worked! Let's go!"

They sprinted toward the blue pickup. Buck quickly inspected the make and model. "Ford F-150?" he muttered. "Where are we?"

He opened the door to see a heavyset older man behind the wheel. "Where ya headed?" he asked.

"Just to the nearest town," Buck offered.

The old man motioned for them to come into the cab. Buck helped Wilma up into the seat, and then jumped in behind her. The door closed and the old man took off once more onto the road.

"Where you folks from?"

"New Chicago." Wilma replied.

The old man shook his head. "Not familiar with that town. Where's that? Is that anywhere near Chicago?"

Buck placed his hand on Wilma's arm. "Nowhere near it. It's in Indiana."

The old man whistled. "You're a long way from home, ain't ya? What'cha doing in these parts?"

"We were on vacation when our car broke down. We're trying to get to town now so we can maybe find a tow truck."

"Then you are in luck! I got a friend in town who runs a gas station. He moonlights as a tow truck driver."

"Great!" Buck said, trying to sound excited.

"How long you been walking?"

Buck shrugged. "Most of the day."

He chuckled. "I believe that. You picked the wrong place to have a breakdown. Oh, where is my manners? My name's Darryl."

He extended a hand which Buck quickly met. "Buck."

"Wilma," she said after shaking the old man's hand.

Darryl looked at them for a moment before looking back down the road. "Good looking couple!"

"Oh we're not-"

"Thank you," Buck interrupted.

She looked at Buck and began to say something, but he merely winked at her. She took the hint and remained quiet. They drove for about ten miles, exchanging small talk with Darryl.

Finally they could see the outskirts of a tiny town in the distance. Buck noticed a brown sign along the side of the road that read, "Leaving Alleghany National Forest." Shortly after that sign, small houses began to appear along the road. They drove for a few more minutes before Darryl pulled into a gas station.

"Well, we're here. Bobby should be in the office there," he said, pointing to the small building. "I need to get home to the wife before she thinks I'm having an affair!"

"Thanks for the ride, Darryl," Buck said in appreciation.

"No problem. There's a motel just down the road here if you need to stay. It's getting late. It'll be dark soon."

"Thanks for all the help."

"Sure thing. Good luck, folks. Oh, just tell Bobby I sent you. He'll take real good care of ya."

Slowly the blue Ford entered the road and disappeared into town. Wilma turned to Buck. "Now what?"  
Buck headed for the office. He tried to open the door but it was locked. It was then that he noticed a tiny sign in the window that read, "Be back in ten minutes." He noticed a newspaper dispenser on the little sidewalk. As he neared the dispenser, he suddenly froze in his tracks. He stopped so quickly that Wilma ran right into his back.

"Buck, what is it?"

He didn't answer. Instead he rushed straight for the dispenser, reached in and grabbed a paper. His jaw dropped in amazement and his body froze.

"Buck?" Wilma asked concernedly. "What is it?"

He held the paper up for Wilma to see. "Check out the date."

She quickly scanned the front page of the paper. Buck pointed to the date at the top of the page. Her eyes widened as she turned slowly to face Buck.

"May 12, 1987? Is that possible?"  
Buck let his hand fall to his side. He looked around him in a new light. "It would explain the forest and the cars."

"But how did we get here?"

Buck took a couple steps toward the road. "May 12, 1987," he repeated.

Wilma approached him and placed her hands on his arm. "What happened on May 12, 1987?"  
Buck shrugged. "I don't know." Suddenly his eyes lit up as he turned to face Wilma. "May, 1987! Do you know what this means?"  
She cocked her head. "No," she replied slowly. "What does it mean?"

"It means that the holocaust hasn't happened yet!" he answered excitedly. "It means that I have a chance to stop it from happening!"

Wilma grasped his arm tighter. "Is that really a good idea?"  
"What do you mean? Stopping the death of six billion people? Yeah, it's a good idea! Why wouldn't it?"

"It would change the history of the Earth."

"If you had the chance to save six billion lives, wouldn't you at least want to try?"  
She thought for a moment, then nodded. "So what do you have in mind?"

He shook his head. "I don't. First things first, though. It's getting dark. We need to find that motel Darryl told us about. Then we can come up with some kind of game plan." He started to walk down the road. Wilma hesitated. "Are you coming?" he called.

She paused for another moment before hurrying to catch up. "But we have no idea how the holocaust even started? Or where it started."

Buck nodded. "Yeah, I know."

"Then how do we stop it?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. We have four days to figure it out."

"Why only four days?"

He looked at her blankly. "That's when my shuttle launches. We're here four days before the final shuttle launch in human history. I have to make sure it's not the last, if it's the last thing I do. I vow to stop the holocaust from happening."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

On the way to the motel, Buck and Wilma passed many small shops, bars, a fire station, and a funeral home. Just as the motel came into view, Buck stopped and snapped his fingers.

"What's wrong?"

"Money."

"Money?"

He nodded, grinned wanly. "Yeah. We don't have any. I need to find a MAC machine."

"Mack machine?"

"MAC, ATM, something. We won't get anywhere in this world if we don't have any money."

Once more he started down the street. They passed the motel about two blocks before Buck smiled, pointed to a building. "That's what we need. A bank."

Wilma started to say something, but decided against it. She simply decided to follow. They walked down the dark street to the side of the building. They stepped into the tiny cubicle.

"So how does this Mack machine work?"

Buck reached into the breast pocket of his flight jacket and pulled out the electronic manipulator.

"What is that?"  
He grinned. "Theo gave it to me to fix my computer. I'm gonna see if I can get a couple hundred dollars."

"Isn't that called stealing?"  
"I'll pay it back. Well, here goes."

He aimed the pen toward the ATM machine and tapped the top. Money instantly began to stream out of the machine. It poured out for several seconds before Buck realized he was getting more than he'd asked for.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

The money stopped streaming. Quickly he counted how much had come out.

"Do we have a couple hundred?"  
Buck looked at Wilma sheepishly. "Oh, yeah. We've got a couple hundred…or a couple thousand. But who's counting?"

"Buck!"  
"Don't worry. What we don't use I'll pay back. Besides, it's for the future of mankind!"

He quickly stuffed the money into a pocket and headed for the motel.

Buck entered the motel room and dropped the key onto the nearby table. Wilma entered behind him slowly and unsurely, not knowing what to expect. Buck turned on the television and hopped on one of the two beds. He pointed to the other one.

"That one's yours."

He grabbed the TV remote and randomly searched the channels until he found some music videos. He then grabbed the paper and began to read the classifieds.

"So what is our plan?" Wilma asked.

He put the paper on the bed. "We need to do a little shopping."

"Shopping?"

"We're gonna need some different clothes. These flight suits kind of stand out. And we're going to need some kind of transportation. I might be able to find a decent car in the paper."

"Transportation to where?"

He shrugged. "Anywhere." He grabbed the phone book off of the nightstand. He studied it for several minutes before setting it back down. "We're in luck. There's a shopping mall about a mile from here. We should be able to find some new clothes there, and maybe get something to eat. Unless you want to take a shower first," he said, indicating the bathroom door.

She shook her head. "Something to eat sounds really good. Lunch wasn't all that appetizing," she reminisced.

Buck smiled. "Okay. Let's go shopping."

They left the motel and walked the mile to the shopping mall. Just outside the mall was a Steak and Sea restaurant. Wilma followed Buck inside the restaurant. They were met at the door by a woman who led them to their booth seat. She then gave them a menu to look at and said that someone would be by soon. Buck opened his menu and smiled.

"I know what I'm getting right now. I'm going for the sixteen ounce T-bone steak with the baked potato."

Wilma stared blankly at the menu for several minutes before setting it down.

"What are you getting?" Buck asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know what most of this is."

He nodded. "I know what you'd like."

"No more rabbit!" she warned.

He grinned. "Trust me."

When the waitress returned to take their order, Buck looked up at the girl. "I'll have the T-bone, medium well, baked potato with sour cream and the salad bar."

She wrote the order on her pad and then looked at Wilma. "And for you, ma'am?"

Buck pointed to an item on the menu. "She'll take the broiled haddock with steamed rice and vegetable platter… and salad bar."

"And to drink?"

Buck thought for a moment. "Iced tea… for both of us."

"Sweetened?"

"Yes."

She smiled pleasantly. "Thank you. You can help yourself to the salad bar. Can I ask you a question, if you don't mind?"

"Sure."

"Where did you get those clothes? Those are so hot! You look like you just walked out of a Howard Jones video!"

Buck pretended to look down at his flight suit. "What, this old thing? Oh, we picked these up in Chicago the last time we were there."

The girl smiled broadly. "Awesome!" she commented as she walked away.

When she was gone, Wilma glanced at Buck. "What is haddock? And who is Howard Jones?"

"It's a fish, and he's a musician. Don't worry, I think you'll like it, the haddock, that is. And as far as Howard Jones, I won't make any guarantees on that. Well, shall we go to the salad bar?"

When the meals came, Wilma looked at her plate dubiously while Buck nearly jumped onto his steak. She cut off a small piece of the haddock and put it into her mouth. Her eyes widened in delight.

"Hmmm, this is good!"

Buck nodded, smiled. "I told you you'd like it. You want to try a piece of my steak? I promise you it's nothing like the rabbit."

"Maybe just a small piece."

He cut off a sliver of meat and placed it onto her plate. Tenderly she forked it and tasted it. She smiled and nodded approvingly. "Not bad!"

Buck leaned his elbows on the table, smiled, and stared at Wilma. "What?" she asked.

"I'm gonna make you a meat eater yet!"

After dinner they walked across the parking lot to the mall. Wilma spent several hours walking around the mall, going into and out of several stores. Buck managed to talk her into trying on several new outfits, which she seemed to really enjoy. After several hours of shopping, they took their many bags of clothes, shoes, jewelry, and other necessities back to the motel room. Wilma sat down on the bed with several bags and slowly went through them to decide what she wanted to wear tomorrow. Buck grabbed a pair of sweat pants and a tee shirt and went into the bathroom.

"I'll be back in a few minutes. I'm gonna take a shower."

Before he went into the bathroom, he turned the television back on. Wilma sat back to watch the music videos and revel in her new purchases. When Buck came back from his shower, she looked at him oddly.

"What?"

She shrugged. "I've never seen you in such… odd clothes."

"Sorry."

She shook her head. "No, no! I… like it!"

He grinned. "Well, you're gonna have to get used to wearing 'odd' clothes too. As long as we're stuck in 1987, you'll be wearing them too."

"I know."

Buck crossed the room and sat down in the bed. He picked up the paper and began to scan the classifieds again.

"Buck?"

He glanced up over the edge of the paper. "Huh?"

"What is a 'Duran Duran'?"

He smiled. "It's just the name of a musical band back in my day."

Wilma turned to face the television. "This… music… is… interesting," she managed to say.

"It sure is."

Another song came on. Wilma's eyes were glued to the small screen. "What is a 'Whitesnake'?"

Buck resisted the urge to giggle. "Just another band."

She watched the video, cocked her head to one side. "What is that… woman… doing to that vehicle?"

Buck looked up and glanced at the television. "Anything she wants to," he mumbled.

Wilma shot a look at Buck. "What?"

He shook his head once. "Huh? Oh, she's just dancing."

Wilma turned back to the television. "Interesting."

Buck raised the paper to cover his face, but left room for him to still see the TV screen. "It certainly is," he said almost inaudibly. "It certainly is."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The sound of music slowly permeated into Buck's brain. Groggily he opened his eyes. It took several minutes until he realized where he was. His eyes focused on the music videos, then on Wilma who was sitting at the edge of her bed staring at the television.

"Did you watch that all night?" he asked.

She simply nodded. "They had something on last night called, 'Headbanger's Ball.' I found the music and the images… confusing, sick, and depraved."

Buck smiled and began to giggle. "You sound like my mother!"

He picked up the remote control and turned off the television. She whirled around to protest. "Hey, I was watching that!"

"I think you've had enough of that boob tube." Buck suddenly closed his eyes and shook his head. "Man, I just sounded like my father!"

Wilma giggled. Buck picked up one of the new outfits Wilma had bought the night before and threw it at her. "Go get dressed," he smiled.

Reluctantly she retrieved the outfit and went into the bathroom. When she came out, she turned around to model her clothes for Buck. "So how do I look?"

Buck smiled, nodded. "Like you're ready to go dancing on a Jag."

"Huh?"

"You look very nice."

She smiled broadly. "So have you decided on a plan of action yet?"  
He sat down at the edge of his bed. "I was thinking about that last night, when I wasn't being drowned out by the music."

He glared at Wilma who simply shrugged and turned away. He smirked slightly. "I did come up with a possibility."

Wilma sat down at the edge of her bed facing Buck. "What?"

"Well since we don't know how the war started or who launched the first missiles, going to see my old military generals or the president won't help. Heck, for all we know a rogue nation like Iran could have launched the first attack and blamed either us or Russia. So I came up with the idea of driving to Florida and hijacking the shuttle launch."

Wilma's eyes widened. "Are you sure about this?"

He shrugged. "I don't see where we have much choice. If we can take over the controls of the shuttle once launched, we can fly it to where the stargate is. We take the stargate to the nearest system and then come back to Earth. If we can prove to the American and Russian governments that we're not alone in the galaxy, maybe that will bring about some semblance of unity."

"But the stargate is locked," Wilma protested.

"Yes, but we know the code!"

"We do?"

Buck stared at Wilma for a moment. He raised one eyebrow. Suddenly her face brightened. "Of course! We have Doctor Huer's information from his first flight!"

He grinned, nodded. "We know exactly what frequency and amplitude the gate is tuned to. All we have to do is input the correct code and bingo! The gate is unlocked!"

Wilma sighed. "I still don't know if this is the right thing."

"What do you mean?"

She shook her head. "I mean trying to change the course of history. Everything happened for a reason. Do we have the right to try to change all that?"

Buck moved to sit beside Wilma. "I agree that everything happens for a reason. There's a reason that we came back to this time. What if the fates want us to at least try to stop the holocaust? Don't we owe them that courtesy? If we can stop the holocaust, think of the possibilities! Just think how much more advanced we'd be in the twenty-fifth century! There'd be no wastelands, no fake sunsets, no more space ice-burgs. We'd be in a better position to challenge the Draconians!"

"But what if we make it worse?"

Buck looked at her blankly. "We're trying to stop the holocaust. What could be worse than the holocaust?"

"Total destruction?"

"I think we've been sent here for a reason. We owe it to Darryl, our waitress last night, all those shop owners we visited last night to at least try to save their lives."

They looked at each other for several moments before at last Wilma lowered her eyes and nodded. "You're right. So how do we get to Florida?"

Buck grabbed the newspaper. "I found a car in the ads. Give me a couple minutes to get dressed and make a couple phone calls and I'll be ready."

She nodded as he grabbed some clothes and went into the bathroom.

The taxi rolled to a stop in front of the address Buck had seen in the classifieds. He gave the driver the toll and then stepped out of the cab, followed by Wilma. They walked up the driveway as the cab drove away. Buck stepped up to the front door and rang the bell. The door opened to show an elderly woman.

Buck smiled gently. "Hello, Mrs. Anders. I'm Buck Rogers. I called you this morning about the car in the ad."

She smiled warmly. "Oh, yes. My, you didn't waste any time getting here. Oh, is this Mrs. Rogers? If you don't mind my saying, you two look like a fine young couple. Please excuse me for a minute. I forgot to get the keys. The car is in the garage. Go ahead to the door and I'll unlock it from inside. I'll meet you there in a minute."

Buck turned to face Wilma. The front door shut behind him. "Well, she likes to talk, doesn't she? I don't think she even stopped to breathe!"

Wilma merely grinned. They stepped off the porch and to the garage door. Within moments the sound of a small motor sounded and the garage door slowly opened. Inside the garage were two cars. The elderly woman walked down the garage between the two. She pointed to the car on her right, Buck's left.

"This is the one that's for sale. This was my husband's, God rest his soul."

"I'm very sorry for your loss, Ma'am," Buck apologized.

Mrs. Anders smiled. "Oh, no, Dear. Don't apologize. Martin was a good man. He lived a good and full life. He served in World War 2. He was one of the soldiers who stormed Normandy." A sudden gleam in her eye appeared. "I remember how he used to look in his uniform. He was a handsome man! And strapping, kind of like you!"

Wilma put her hand on Buck's arm and nudged him slightly. "Yes he is, isn't he?" she giggled.

Buck tried to look away, but Wilma wouldn't let him. "What's wrong, Buck? Are you getting embarrassed?"

"No. Just extremely flattered."

"Flattered? Or flustered?"

Buck turned to look at the car. He touched it gently. He looked down at the grill and suddenly froze. He jerked his head up to look at the elderly woman. Wilma noticed the change in Buck.

"What's wrong?"

He fumbled for the piece of newspaper he had cut out containing the ad for the car. He quickly read it, then looked at Mrs. Anders. "You said it was a Ford Pinto."

"Is something wrong, Dear?" she asked.

Buck shook his head. "No, not really. But this isn't a Pinto."

"Then what is it?"

He smirked slightly. "It's a Mustang."

The old woman shrugged one shoulder. "Pinto, Mustang, they're both horses."

Buck reached inside the car to unlatch the hood. He propped it open to look at the engine. His eyes widened beyond normal proportion. "Holy…! This is a 1986 Mustang GT! Five Liter; sequential multi-port fuel injection; 302 V-8! Manual transmission, convertible…"

The elderly woman glanced at Wilma who simply shrugged. "Is that good?" they both asked in unison.

Buck stood up tall, grinning from ear to ear. "Oh, yes… that's good! Do you mind if I… took it for test drive?"

She handed him the keys. He eased into the seat, inserted the key, and revved the engine. Slowly he moved down the driveway, then out onto the street. Several minutes later he pulled back into the driveway. He walked back into the garage.

"Mrs. Anders; this car would be perfect."

"Great! I believe I asked for five hundred."

Buck pulled out the wad of cash from his pocket. He quickly counted out a sum of money and then handed it to the woman. "Thank you, Mrs. Anders. This really means a great deal to me. I promise to take care of it."

Buck and Wilma got into the car, but before they could leave, the old woman came rushing down the driveway with the money in her hand.  
"You gave me too much money!" she exclaimed. "I said five hundred. You gave me five thousand!"

Buck reached out and gently closed the old woman's hand around the excess money. "Ma'am, this car is worth so much more than five hundred dollars. If I only paid you five hundred, I would be committing highway robbery and doing you a great disservice. And besides, if my mother ever found out what I'd done, she would never forgive me. Please take the money and treat yourself to something nice. You deserve it. Your husband Martin paid a lot of money for this car. The least I can do is repay you a fraction of what it's worth."

The old woman smiled and nodded. "People like you are rare," she said with a tear in her eye. "Anyone else would have paid the money and ran. You, Sir, are something special… just like my Martin was." She glanced at Wilma sitting in the passenger seat. "Don't let him get away from you," she warned.

Wilma smiled bashfully. "I'll do my best."

Buck started the car and put it into reverse. "Good-bye, Mrs. Anders."

She waved back. "Good-bye, Son."

Buck slowly backed into the street. They took one quick, last look at the old woman before they started down the street. Wilma gently placed her hand on Buck's arm.

"That was a good thing you did."

"What I said was true. This car is worth so much more than five hundred. If I had only given her five hundred dollars, I would never have forgiven myself."

"Is this car worth that much?"

Buck looked at her with a wild gleam in his eye and a smile on his face. "Oh! Trust me… you're going to love this!"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Buck pulled into the gas station and stopped at the pump. Wilma looked over. "Why are we stopping?"

"Need gas."

"Gas?"

"Fuel."

"Already?"

Buck nodded. "One thing you'll find out real soon: cars in the twentieth century are very inefficient compared to the twenty-fifth century. On our way to Florida, we'll probably have to stop half a dozen times."

She furrowed her brows. "How far is Florida?"

He shrugged. "Thousand miles? Give or take a couple hundred."

"In a transport that would only take an hour."

"I know. But…," he patted the steering wheel as he opened the door. "We're not in a transport. Come on; I'll show you how to pump gas."

Wilma exited the car and moved around to Buck's side. He inserted the nozzle into the gas tank and smiled at Wilma. "Come here. See this handle here? All you have to do is hold it down."

"Where are you going?"

He pointed to the little store. "I'm gonna get a couple snacks, a map, and pay for the gas."

"How will I know when the fueling process is ended?"  
Buck grinned. "The pump will stop itself. I'll be right back. Oh, when it does stop running, you can replace the handle in this holder right here. That will shut off the pump. Don't worry, you'll do fine."

Buck went into the store, leaving Wilma holding the gas pump. She hesitantly squeezed the trigger. Gasoline instantly began to flow into the gas tank. One whiff of the fumes, however, caused her to turn her head away in disgust.

"Ugh," she mumbled. "Barbarians."

When the pump stopped, she hung up the handle and hurried back into the car. A minute later Buck came back with a plastic bag full of supplies. He set the bag in between the two seats and smiled as he began to pull things out.

"I got an atlas, Rand McNally, of course; donuts for breakfast, glazed or powdered sugar; potato chips, one bag regular and one bag of my favorite sour cream; some pretzel rods, and a couple orange sodas and a couple root beers."

Wilma glanced at him blankly. "I have no idea what you just said."

"I know! That's what makes it all the better!"

"You're having fun with this, aren't you?"  
"You bet! I'm in my comfort zone and you're not! Now you have some kind of idea what I was going through when I first came into your world."

Wilma nodded once, looked away. "I had no idea." She glanced over at him again. "You know Buck? I really envy you."

"For what?"

"How you adjust to new situations and new surroundings. You were taken out of your world and placed into a completely new, alien one… and yet you not only survive, you thrive! You have adjusted so well into the twenty-fifth century that most people would never believe you weren't born there. Me… I'm in 1987 for one day and I'm totally clueless. If it weren't for you, I'd probably still be wandering around that stupid forest, hungry, cold, and lost."

He placed a hand on her arm. "You don't give yourself enough credit, Wilma. Sure you might still be in the woods, but you'd eventually find your way back out. You have excellent survival skills, I've seen them before. But since you have me with you: you can just sit back, relax, and leave the flying to me." He pulled out a sugar donut. "Here, have a donut."

"What is a donut?"

He shrugged. "Just basically sugar and flour. Try one… they're really good!"

Buck threw the car into gear and squealed the tires getting back onto the road. Wilma jerked her head around. "What was that?"

Buck smiled sheepishly. "That was me trying to get used to the clutch!"

Wilma stuck out her tongue to lick some of the powdered sugar. She looked at Buck out of the corner of her eye as she smiled. She then placed the entire mini-donut into her mouth.

"Hmmm, this is good!"

"I'll take one of those glazed donuts… no, the brown one. These are my favorites, with the exception of angel-cream filled. They didn't have any of those."

Wilma tried one of the glazed donuts as well. She liked the first one so well she took another one. "Slow down on those things," Buck chided. "You want to keep your girlish figure for those outfits we bought last night!"

"I'm beginning to understand your fascination for food," Wilma stated. "We don't have anything like what I've eaten these two days. Our food is… bland. Your food is spicy…, sweet…, good!"

"You want to try salty? Open up one of those bags of chips… the blue bag."

She opened the bag of regular chips and ate one of the smaller ones. Her eyes widened with enjoyment. "You might not get this bag back!"

Buck chuckled. "I think I've created a food monster. Wait until you try chocolate chip cookies!"

He slammed his foot down on the accelerator to pass a slower car on the two lane highway. Wilma instinctively grasped onto the car handle.

"Aren't you going a little too fast?"

Buck glanced down at the speedometer. "I'm only doing sixty-five."

"Sixty-five what?"

"Miles per hour. You're used to space ships doing thousands of miles per minute and stargates that nearly instantly transport you millions of miles and you can't handle a Ford Mustang doing sixty-five?"

"It just feels… too fast!"

Buck began to giggle.

"What?"

"You really do sound like my mother!"

She glared at him for only a moment before beginning to laugh. She turned away to watch the scenery. A few minutes later she turned again.

"Buck? What are these buildings here?"

"Huh? Oh, they're just houses… people's homes."

"Why are some houses small and others big?"

He shrugged. "It all depends on how much you can afford. If you have a good job that makes a lot of money, you get a big house. If you don't have a lot of money, you get a smaller house. Or if you live in the city, you can get an apartment. Even apartments come in different sizes and price ranges."

"So everything depends upon money?"

He nodded. "Pretty much."

"What determines who will live in the city and who will live outside the city?"

"Well, of course the biggest factor is where you're born. But pretty much people themselves decide where they will live. If I live in Chicago and decide to move to New York, then I get a few friends together and we load up the trucks and move. Or if I want to move to this little town here when I retire, I buy a little house with a view of the lake, buy a fishing boat and a case of beer and I'm set. We pretty much have the freedom to live and do what we want. At least in America, we do. I can't say that for the rest of the world. In a lot of countries, the government determines where you live, where you work, when you take vacation, if you get vacation time."

"That's… barbaric."

"It certainly is." He glanced at Wilma out of the corner of his eye. "But there are some advantages to my world."

"And what's that?"

"Potato chips!"

She began to giggle as she looked around.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

They traveled for several hours, through small cities and even smaller towns and villages, over mountains, through forested and farming areas before Buck finally stopped for lunch and gave Wilma her first taste of fast food, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Soon afterward they were back on the highway. Wilma was just finishing her hamburger when she saw a highway sign that made her glance at Buck.

"Washington D.C.? Isn't that your capital?"

Buck simply nodded.

"Can we stop?"

He glimpsed his watch and did a quick calculation in his head. "Sure. It's only about forty-five miles out of the way. We should have enough time to spend a couple hours there. We should get there about three or four o'clock. Then we can find a motel in Alexandria or somewhere around there."

The closer they got to Washington, the slower and more congested traffic became. By the time they got downtown, traffic had nearly slowed to a stop. Buck found a place to park and then led Wilma by the hand down the streets. Wilma walked with her eyes as wide as possible, as if she were trying to take everything in at once. She moved her head as if on a swivel, trying to see everything. They stepped into an open area and Wilma simply stopped in her tracks.

"Oh my," her voice trailed off.

Buck nodded solemnly. "I get the same feeling every time I come here too."

She took one more step forward and stopped again. "I… I've seen vids of this… I've even flown over this in my starfighter… but the area was always in ruins. To see it… like this… is… overwhelming!"

Buck gazed down the long path leading to the Washington Monument. He gently nudged her. "Come on. Let's get closer. There's something else you have to see."

They walked slowly, reverently down the long path. Speechless, Wilma simply continued to stare. As they neared the monument, she once again found her voice.

"This is the Washington Monument, right?"

Buck nodded. "Yep. It was built to honor the first president of the United States. George Washington led us in our war for independence." He placed his hands on her shoulders and grinned. "Turn around."

Slowly she turned. Again she gasped.

"Have you ever seen a better view of the Capitol Building?"

"I wish I had a camera with me," she breathed.

He gently grasped her hand. "There's something else. This way."

He slowly led her past the Washington Monument toward another structure. When they were half way, she stopped and looked at Buck. "Is that…?"

He simply nodded and nudged her to keep walking. "This is the Lincoln Memorial. He was our sixteenth president. When our country was falling apart, he brought us back together. He freed the slaves and united the north and south back into one country. He is generally considered the second best president we ever had, after Washington."

Slowly they entered the Memorial. They stopped and looked at the massive sculpture of Lincoln sitting in his seat. Buck gently rested his arm around Wilma's shoulder.

"Now you understand why I have to stop the holocaust… if I can."

She looked deeply into Buck's eyes and nodded once. "I'll help you."

They turned and began the long trek back toward the Capitol Building. Buck led her on a quick tour of Grant's Memorial, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court building, and finally Union Station before heading back to the car. Once back inside the Mustang, Wilma closed her eyes in an attempt to permanently remember all the sights she had seen.

"There's one thing I don't understand," she said softly.

"What's that?"

She took a deep breath and slowly released it. "How people can so carelessly destroy such beauty and majesty. I've seen broken images of some of these places, but never really understood the importance of their meaning. Seeing them in person in whole… makes me wonder how someone could have destroyed them."

Buck nodded. "Not all people are like that. Just a select few."

"What could have happened to make them want to destroy the world? What… arrogance to ignore the consequences of their actions!"

"That's just like human history," Buck explained. "Our history is one of warfare for as far as our history is recorded and before. There's always been war."

"But to destroy… everything?"

Buck started the car and eased out into the street. "It's human nature to ignore or neglect or take for granted the things we have and cherish until we no longer have them. I'm just as much to blame as anyone else."

"How so?"

He sighed heavily. "I was always so busy at school, or at work, or at whatever… I didn't spend the time I should have with my mom or dad…, or Jennifer. She literally begged me to slow down…, to start a family. She wanted so much to get married, have kids, a life together. But there was always one more job to do, one more mission to accomplish, one more thing to get done." He sighed again. "Never time to slow down and smell the roses… or watch the sunset. It's funny what you miss the most… when everything's gone.

"It's like that song: 'As I hung up the phone it occurred to me. My boy was just like me. My boy was just like me. The cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon. Little Boy Blue and the Man in the Moon. When you coming home, Son. I don't know when. But we'll have a good time then. We're gonna have a good time then."

Wilma nodded once, but didn't reply. She simply turned to look out the window as Buck drove slowly down the streets and back to the Interstate. They drove in silence for another hour until it got dark. After a quick dinner, they found a motel.

"Does this motel have that music station?" Wilma asked.

Buck turned on the television and scrolled through the channels until he found MTV. She leaned back in her bed and watched in silence as Buck went into the bathroom for a shower. When he came back out, he glanced at Wilma who was fast asleep. He carefully maneuvered her underneath the blankets.

Slowly he crawled into his bed. He turned his head to look at the nightstand. He pulled the phone and dialed a number.

"Front desk? I'd like to make a long distance phone call. Chicago. No, just bill it to my room. I'll pay for it when I check out tomorrow. Thank you."

He hung up and then followed the directions the clerk had given him. He dialed the number that had for so long been ingrained into his brain. The phone rang twice before a woman picked up.  
"Hello Mom! This is Buck! No, nothing's wrong. I just wanted to call and talk for a while. It's been so long since I've heard your voice. I know… but to me it seems like it's been forever."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Buck and Wilma spent nearly the next whole day in the Mustang traveling south on Interstate 95. Wilma was intent upon trying to see everything. Somewhere in South Carolina it began to sprinkle and then to rain heavily. Wilma's eyes were opened wide as her head jerked from side to side in reaction to the windshield wipers of the Mustang. Buck almost laughed at her.

"You look funny."

Her eyes continued to follow the wipers. "Why?"

"Haven't you ever seen rain before?"

"Of course I have. Just not on Earth. I'm just amazed at the inefficiency of these anti-precipitation devices."

Buck began to laugh. "What? The windshield wipers? These are the top of the line wiper blades you're looking at."

"Wiper blades?"

"Roll your window down."

She looked at him blankly. Buck grasped the handle on his side, indicated the similar handle on Wilma's side. Then he began to crank the handle to lower the window. Wilma followed, then smiled in amazement as the rain began to enter the window. Her hair blew back in the wind and the rain pelted her bare arm. Buck rested his arm on top of the car door, looked over at Wilma who quickly did the same. The two of them laughed together as they drove through the rainstorm.

By the time they reached Titusville, Florida, it was dark and both were exhausted from driving. They found a small motel on the outskirts of town and quickly turned in for the night.

The next day Buck was already dressed and ready to go before Wilma even woke up. She suggested that Buck call some of his friends while she took a shower. He simply shook his head.

"That might not be a good idea."

"Why not?"

"What if I get talking to Toby or Jim and then they see the other Buck later before my flight takes off? They might ask him about something I said and the other Buck would have no idea what they were talking about."

She nodded. "Good point. Speaking of the other Buck, have you decided what you're going to do about him?"

"Sleeping gas."

"Huh?"

"We're going to sneak aboard the shuttle tonight. When he comes in tomorrow morning, the first thing he's going to do is tie into the shuttle's interior atmosphere. I'm going to install a tank of sleeping gas into the shuttle's environmental control and he's going to fall asleep. Then we can move him into another seat. I figure he should be out cold at least until we can find the stargate."

She grinned slightly. "It's going to be strange seeing another you around."

"Tell me about it. I've been thinking about that all night."

She started to enter the bathroom but suddenly stopped cold. She slowly turned to face Buck.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I just thought of something. I'm going to be stuck in a small space ship… with two Buck Rogers!"

Buck barely showed a grin out of the corner of his mouth. "Well aren't you the lucky one?"

She shrugged. "I don't know if 'luck' is the word I would've used!"

He waved her into the bathroom. "Just go take your shower and shut up!"

When the bathroom door closed, he could still hear her giggling.

When Wilma was ready, they both left the motel and got into the Mustang. Buck fired up the car and headed across town.

"Where are we going first?"

"My old apartment.'

"Is that a good idea?"

He nodded. "Yeah. It's about ten on Friday morning. I'd already be on base, getting last minute preparations for my launch tomorrow. And my roommate Toby will be on base too. This is the perfect time to go."

"Why do you have to go to your apartment?"

"I need to steal one of my uniforms so I can get onto the base this afternoon."

"What about me?"

"I'm gonna smuggle you in. We'll find you a uniform once we get on base."

Buck turned onto Indian River Avenue and drove for a few minutes. Finally they pulled up to a small apartment complex. They got out of the car and started for the building. Buck tapped Wilma on the shoulder.

"If anybody asks who you are, you're my sister."

She merely nodded. He pointed across the parking lot. "I loved this apartment. See that beach? I spent a lot of nights laying on the sand there. A lot different from Chicago nights."

He stopped to take a long look at the crowd already forming on the beach and the waves gently lapping the shore.

"You want to go down for a couple minutes?"

He thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No. We've got a job to do."

He led her up the exterior stairs to his second floor apartment. He reached into a nearby hanging flower pot and pulled out a key. He glanced at Wilma and grinned.

"For emergencies."

He opened the door and quietly replaced the key. They stepped into the apartment. Buck immediately went into the bedroom to pick out a uniform. In the meantime Wilma simply walked around the living room of the apartment. There were many pictures of Buck and a beautiful woman throughout the room. Wilma stepped closer to one and picked it up. She recognized the picture of Jennifer that Buck had shown her a long time ago. She replaced the picture back on the mantel and moved on to the next one. Several minutes passed before Buck came out of the bedroom. Her eyes widened as she turned to look.

"How do I look?" he asked.

Wilma stared at him for a moment. He was dressed in Air Force dress uniform. She blinked a couple times, then cleared her throat. "Uh, great! You look… great!"

Buck noticed that Wilma was holding a picture. He stepped up to her and looked down at the frame. He smiled and nodded.

"That was taken at Homecoming last year. I took her to my old college. They had a fair going on, we rode some rides, ate some cotton candy. This was right after I won her that giant Pooh bear in her arms." He paused, closed his eyes. In his mind he could still see that night unfold as if it had happened last night. At last he opened his eyes, shook his head. He sighed heavily. "I'm done here. Are you ready to go?"

She nodded as she replaced the picture. She rested her hands on Buck's arm. "It has to be hard on you, being here."

"In this apartment or back in 1987?"

"Both."

He stared deeply into Wilma's eyes for a long minute. A muscle in his right cheek twitched. He looked away and went to the picture window. He looked down at the beach and ocean. Softly Wilma stepped beside him.

He shook his head. "This is the life I knew. The life I had. It's hard to see it all over again. It's like a dream. I don't know if it's real or if we're just in some fantasy. What if we're still inside that starfighter and this is all just a dream?"

"Does it feel like a dream?"

He shook his head again. "No. It feels real."

"If it were all a dream, then we're having the same one. And I've never been here before. So it can't be a dream."

He chuckled wanly. "You know, I've never understood time travel. I never understood Terminator, Star Trek IV, Voyagers, Doctor Who… Time travel is…out there. If this all is real, then I'm… out there too. How do I cope with the idea of time travel back to my own time? How do I cope with the fact that there are two Buck Rogers on Cape Canaveral?"

Wilma softly stroked the side of Buck's cheek. "We focus on the mission."

He nodded after a moment's hesitation. "You're right." He took a deep breath and stood a little taller. "Let's go catch the space shuttle. We've got a holocaust to stop."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

It was nearly lunchtime by the time they got back to the motel. They entered the motel room and Buck turned on MTV for Wilma. He smiled at her.

"I'm gonna go take a little walk."

"You want some company?"

He shook his head. "No. I just want to walk around Titusville one last time. I want to see the old sights, smell the old smells… let my memory wander for a while."

She nodded knowingly. "Okay. I'll be here when you get back. Don't get lost!"

He simply nodded and left. She waited for a couple minutes then quickly grabbed the motel key and left the room in pursuit.

Buck walked slowly down the street for several blocks. When he came to an outside café, he stopped and hesitated for the longest moment. He looked up and down the street cautiously. Finally he crossed the street and sat down at one of the sidewalk tables. Several minutes passed before a woman stepped up to the table.

"Well, Captain Rogers. What are you doing here, as if I didn't already know?"

He jerked his head up to see a pretty face smiling down at him. She definitely looked familiar, but he simply for the life of him couldn't place the name to go with the face. He smiled warmly as he looked up.

"Hi, uh…"

"Anne," the girl said smiling. "I don't blame you for forgetting who I am."

"No, no," he stammered. "It's not that. I…I'm just not good with names, and I haven't seen you in a while, and-"

Anne began to giggle. "I'm just picking on you, Buck! Don't worry about it! If I were dating a girl like Jennifer, I wouldn't remember me either!"

Buck smiled at the girl. "Thanks."

"Speaking of Jennifer, I suppose that's why you're here?"

He nodded quickly.

"Don't go away. I'll tell her you're here. Be right back!"

She disappeared back inside the restaurant for a few moments. The door opened several times. Every time it did, Buck's heart leaped only to be disappointed when someone else exited or entered. Finally the door opened and Jennifer stepped onto the sidewalk. Buck's eyes widened, his heart skipped a beat, and his breathing became short. Another moment and he would have started to hyperventilate. He quickly rose to his feet.

"God, it's really you!" he whispered inaudibly.

She quickly stepped up to the table. "Buck? What are you doing here? In your dress uniform, too?"  
"I thought you liked me in my dress uniform."

Jennifer grinned seductively. "I like you out of your uniform too, but that's not what I meant!" She placed both hands on his chest and kissed him passionately. "Why are you here? You're supposed to be on final checkdown! You leave for orbit tomorrow morning! Why are you here?"  
"It's lunchtime."  
"You didn't say anything this morning about coming here for lunch."

"I wanted to surprise you. And… I just wanted to see you again."

"You just saw me a couple hours ago when you left for work."

Buck smiled, nodded. "I know. But to me it seemed… a lot longer."

She placed the back of her hand on Buck's forehead. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine. I promise."

"You aren't acting fine. What's wrong?"

Buck shook his head. "Nothing. I just wanted to see you again."

She cocked her head to one side. "Has General Roberts done something again?"

"What do you mean?"

"The last time you acted this funny, General Roberts ordered you to show his daughter a good time on the town. What was her name?"

Buck rolled his eyes back and looked into the sky. "Tawnya. What a pain in the butt she was."

"So has Tawnya come back to town?" she asked. "Are you canceling our date for dinner tonight?

Buck laughed and quickly kissed Jennifer. "No, no! Definitely not. I wouldn't miss dinner with you for the world. I just wanted to see the most beautiful woman in the world. Can you blame me for that?"

She glared at him for a moment before shaking her head and smiling. "Buck Rogers, sometimes I just don't know what to do with you!"

"And the other times?" he asked slyly.

She grinned bashfully. "Get out of here, flyboy! I need to get back to work before Guido catches me out here with you. Remember the last time?"

"Yeah, I remember! He wouldn't let me walk on this side of the street for a month!"

She quickly kissed Buck and started to turn, but he grasped her arm gently. "When was the last time I told you I love you?"

"This morning. But you can tell me again, if you really want to!"

" I love you," he whispered. "More than anything."

"I know. I love you too. Do you want me to get you something for lunch real quick?"

Buck shook his head. "No, I need to get going."

She kissed him again, then waved. "See you tonight then?"

"You bet. Wild horses couldn't keep me away."

She turned and rushed back inside the café. Buck took a deep breath and then started back down the sidewalk.

Buck entered the motel room and immediately went to his bed and lay down. He let his head rest deeply into the down pillows.

"Have a nice walk?" Wilma asked.

He simply nodded.

"See anyone you knew?"

"Yeah. I saw a couple people I remember."

"Did you talk to Jennifer?"

"What is this? Twenty questions?"  
He glanced at Wilma who was simply staring at him. He turned to stare at the ceiling. "You followed me." It was not a question.  
"No!" she adamantly denied. "It's not like that! I…" She sighed. "I followed you. I didn't want to be alone in here."

"I thought I had the feeling that someone was watching me. I thought it was just my imagination."

"I thought you said you shouldn't talk to anyone here in case they talk to… the other Buck later."

"I did. And I didn't go for a walk just to go talk to Jennifer. I was just going to watch her for a while from a safe distance… but something in my head told me to go see her. Maybe I had to get some semblance of closure. Now I know for certain that I'm never going to see her again."

"Not if we stop the holocaust!" Wilma said. "If we stop the holocaust then you and Jennifer can—" She couldn't bring herself to finish her statement.

Buck whirled his feet off the bed to sit on the edge. "If we stop the holocaust, it'll be the other Buck who gets Jennifer."

Wilma stared blankly at Buck. "What happens if we do stop the holocaust? What happens to you and to me?"

"Hmmmph," Buck shook his head. "I have no idea. I told you that I don't understand any of this time travel stuff. If only Doctor Theopolis were here. He'd probably have a few theories on our predicament."

"Yes, but we still wouldn't understand our predicament."

Buck chuckled slightly. "Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry, Wilma. I probably shouldn't have gone to see Jennifer."

She shook her head. "No, no. I understand. You love her. I can't imagine how hard this whole ordeal has been for you. When I saw you two together, I could see how much you loved her. Your whole face was glowing. I don't blame you for wanting to see her again."

Buck sighed and lay back down. "She's a reminder of what I had… and one of the many things I took for granted and lost." He sat back up and reached for Wilma's hand. "But you are a reminder of what I have now. I have some good friends no matter where, or when, I am."

Wilma smiled. "Thanks, Buck."

He slapped his knees. "What do you say we go get a late lunch and then maybe a quick nap? We've got a space shuttle to hijack later tonight."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Buck drove the Mustang up to the front gate and stopped. The MP came out of the little shack and approached the vehicle. When he saw Buck, he looked at him strangely.

"Captain Rogers? I thought you just left here an hour ago? What are you doing back? Can't get enough of this place?"  
Buck shook his head. "Yeah, right! No, I left something in my locker… a something important for Jennifer!" he said, winking.

The soldier simply nodded. "I gotcha. Whose car is this? This isn't yours?"

"Jennifer got a new car."

"It's got Pennsylvania plates."

Buck nodded. "Yeah, I know. Her dad bought it at an auction up there. He just brought it down yesterday and hasn't got new plates for it, yet. I just wanted to drive it once before I launched. I'm gonna be gone for a few months, and I wanted to get the feel of it before Jennifer got her hands on it, if you know what I mean?"

The soldier nodded knowingly. "A little rough on cars, is she?"

"You know it, Zack. I told you what she did to her Cavalier, didn't I?"

"Yeah, I heard about that." Zack backed up a couple steps, waved to the gate operator. "Don't be in there too long, Captain. I get off in a few minutes. It might just be a race to see who gets to Jennifer's first!"

Buck smiled broadly. "Right! Thanks, Zack. See you!"

The gates pulled back to allow Buck to drive through. Slowly he drove up to the administration building and parked in a solitary space. Carefully he went to the trunk and looked all around the deserted area. Satisfied no one was around, he opened the trunk. Wilma quickly scrambled out.

"The coast is clear," he said softly.

"It's a little tight in there. Won't he come looking for you if you don't leave soon?"

Buck shook his head. "Shift change. He won't be on again until at least tomorrow afternoon. By that time, we'll be in space. Come on, we need to find you a uniform."

He grabbed the small duffle bag from the front seat and headed for the offices. Just before they could enter the building, however, Buck heard his name being called. He turned to see a good-looking older woman staring at him. He closed his eyes for an instant and winced before smiling cordially.

"Colonel Carpenter!"

"What are you doing here?" she asked as she started walking toward him. "Aren't you supposed to be home getting a good night's rest?"

"Actually, I'm supposed to be out with Jennifer right now."

She gave Wilma a good look-down. "And who is this?"  
"This is my sister, Wilma," he lied.

"How did you get her inside the gate? Don't you know this is highly irregular?"

"Yes, Ma'am. I was just going to my locker for a minute and I didn't have the time to drop her off back at my apartment. She's just down for the day to see me off tomorrow."

"That's no excuse to disregard the rules. Come with me to my office. I'm going to write this up and inform General Roberts. Come on, Captain. You too, Wilma. When he finds this out, we may have to scratch you from the launch."

"But it's too late to bring in somebody else," Buck argued.

"You should have thought about that before you broke the rules. Besides, isn't your friend Toby your backup in case you get sick or something? Come along, Captain Rogers. I'm not joking about this."

Buck hung his head in disgust. He looked at Wilma and shrugged.

"Captain!"

"Coming, Ma'am."

Buck and Wilma followed Colonel Carpenter into the administration building and down the halls, corridors, and elevators until they reached her office. Once inside, she went straight for her desk and indicated for Buck and Wilma to have a seat.

"This will only take a couple minutes."

"Colonel, is this really necessary?"

"You have a blatant disregard for the rules and regulations. You feel like you're above most of the other officers here. I, for one, am getting tired of it. Now sit down, Captain Rogers, and that's an order. Sit down before I call security and have you escorted to the lockup."

He lowered his head, noticed his duffle bag. Slowly his right hand reached inside and grasped his pistol. "What would you say if I told you I wasn't Captain Buck Rogers?"

She didn't even look up from her desk. "Don't be stupid, Captain. And don't think for one minute that I am stupid. And I'm not in the mood for one of your lame jokes."

Buck shrugged, shook his head. "Sorry, Colonel. I don't have time to deal with you. Would the Captain Buck Rogers you know be carrying a futuristic laser pistol?"

She looked up with fire in her eyes until she saw the pistol. "What are you-"

Buck fired the gun. The colonel slumped backwards into her chair. Quickly he replaced the gun in the bag. Wilma stared at him with a wide-eyed look.

"You just shot your superior officer!"

"It was on stun! She'll be fine in the morning. Well, Wilma. There's your uniform. It looks like you outrank me again!"

"What about her? Don't we have to hide her or something?"

"Nah, we'll just leave her here. She won't wake up before we launch, and no one ever comes in here willingly."

Wilma looked at him questioningly.

"What? It's true! Nobody likes her! Not even her husband! That's why he left her!"

"Oh, that's terrible!"

"Not from where I'm sitting. Anyway, she's been trying to write me up for months."

"What did you do to her?"  
Buck jerked his head to face Wilma. "What are you talking about?"

"What did you do to her to make her hate you?"

"Why does it always be something I did to someone? Can't someone just not like me because that's how they are?"

"Buck, what did you do to her?" Wilma asked again.

"Nothing!" he said innocently. "Really! I have done nothing to her!"

Then he thought for a moment. "Nah, it couldn't have anything to do with the Christmas party last year. What, don't look at me like that! I didn't do anything to her! Toby did! It was actually Toby that took her uniform and dressed it on the reindeer."

"Guilty by association," she said, not really understanding what he was talking about but figuring it wasn't exactly military regulation. "But when she wakes up, she's going to really be mad at you!"

Buck laughed. "That's the beauty of it! Right now the Buck she knows is in the middle of a restaurant having dinner with Jennifer in front of fifty witnesses! And nobody can identify you. When she tells someone that a Buck Rogers look-alike clone shot her with a futuristic stun gun that doesn't exist, nobody's gonna believe her. They'll do an investigation and find absolutely nothing. They might even decommission her. By the time anything happens, we'll be through the stargate and back with proof that we aren't alone in the galaxy."

Wilma shook her head. "I don't know."

"Do you want to take her with us?"

"No."

"Then she stays here." Buck stepped behind the desk and looked up at Wilma. "Come on, help me get her uniform off."

Wilma sighed heavily and shook her head as she stepped behind the desk. "I wonder how many times you've said that line, before?" she smirked.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Buck and Wilma slowly strolled down the hall toward the medical facilities. "So, Buck. Do you really have a plan to get on the shuttle or are you just 'winging it', as you are so fond of saying?"

He grinned uneasily. "Now Wilma, you know me better than that, don't you?"

She sighed. "That's what I thought. You're 'winging it.'"

Buck put his hand to his chest. "You hurt me, Wilma. Dagger… right there."  
She slapped him in the arm. "Okay. Then what's our next move?"

They stopped in front of a door. "This is where we get the sleeping gas. That's where you come in."

"Me?"

"Yeah. Tell him you're from OSHA or the NRC, or something. Well, maybe not the NRC."

"What are you talking about?"

"I need you to go in there and get some anesthesia."

"But I can't do that? How am I supposed to-"

He put his hands on her shoulders. 'Wilma, you are the best person I know trained in infiltration tactics and information gathering."

"But that's different. Those tactics are trained on enemy spies and…"

Buck grinned. "Think of him as an enemy spy! We need some information from him without him really knowing we are getting information from him."

A gleam began to form in Wilma's eyes. "Alright," she nodded. "I can do this. What's his name?"  
"Doctor Bellows."

She reached for the door, but stopped and looked at Buck. "What is NRC?"

"Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That may not help here. There's nothing nuclear here."  
"What's OSHA?"

"Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Everyone's afraid of them. That might be a good thing to use."

'Everyone's afraid of them?"

Buck nodded. "They have the authority to literally shut places down if they're too dirty. Everyone is afraid of them, not as afraid as they are from the IRS, but it's close."

"The Internal Revenue Service?" Wilma questioned.

Buck cocked his head. "Huh? How do you know about the IRS?"

"We have an IRS in the twenty-fifth century," she replied.

Buck gave a low whistle. "Wow, Ray Stevens was right. How did Erik the Awful survive the holocaust? Hmmm."

"What?"

"Never mind. Come on, we're burning daylight."

"It's already dark."

He shook his head and pointed to the door. Wilma simply smiled. "I got you!"

"Yeah, yeah. Just go."

"You are addressing a superior officer, Captain!"

Buck saluted. Then he pointed. "Go!"

She nodded. "Come along, aide."

"Wha-?

Wilma opened the door widely and strolled into the medical facilities. Reluctantly Buck followed. The sole resident of the room looked up from his desk. When he saw Wilma and Buck, he immediately stood and saluted. Wilma saluted back as she approached the desk.

"How can I help you, Colonel?"

"I am Colonel Deering from OSHA. I'm here to inspect your lab."

He looked at Buck. "Captain Rogers? What is this, a joke?"  
Buck maintained a serious and somber face as he saluted. "My name is not Captain Rogers. My name is Captain Nelson. I am Colonel Deering's aide."

Wilma nodded. "Yes, this is my aide, Captain Nelson. I believe your Colonel Carpenter made the same mistake. Anyway, Doctor Bellows, I am here, nonetheless, to inspect your facilities. I suggest we get underway."

"B-but, Colonel, are you supposed to be here?"

"What do you mean? Of course I'm supposed to be here. I have superiors just like you do."

"I didn't know OSHA had any jurisdiction here. This is-"

"Doctor Bellows, what is your security clearance?"

"I have the highest top secret clearance there is."

"Do you have Top Secret eight strike Theopolis clearance?"

He looked at her blankly. "What is that? I've never heard of that."

Wilma sighed heavily. "I can't tell you what it is if you don't have the clearance for it."

"If we told you, then we'd have to kill you," Buck added.

Wilma glared at Buck. "Captain Nelson, you are not helping the situation."

Buck saluted, lowered his head. "Yes, Ma'am."

She turned back to Doctor Bellows. "I can't tell you everything, but I can tell you that OSHA has a military aspect to it as well as private. Why do you think they sent a Colonel to do this? I am the lowest ranked officer allowed to do a facility like this."

"How did you get through the gate? This is a secure facility. May I see your credentials?"

"If I'm not authorized to be here, how is it that I am here? Doctor Bellows, I assume you are an intelligent man. Otherwise I may have to question your superiors how you got the initials 'DR' in front of your name. Now let's assume for a moment that you are intelligent. I suggest you assist me in my endeavors or I have authorization to have my aide lock you up."

Again he saluted. "Yes, Ma'am. What would you like to inspect first?"

"You be the judge."

"I'm sorry, Colonel. If I had known you were going to be here, I could have been more prepared."

"And if you knew I was going to be here, you could have hidden anything you need to cover up."

"But why are you here at this hour?"

"I like to work at night. That's when most of the questionable activities occur. Now what is in this cabinet?"

He quickly scrambled to open the chest. Wilma looked inside briefly and nodded her head. Doctor Bellows led Wilma to the next area. Buck secretly grabbed a clipboard from Bellows' desk and rushed to catch up. Wilma turned to see Buck holding the clipboard.

"Captain Nelson, make a note about how cooperative Doctor Bellows is being."

"Yes, Ma'am," he answered as he wrote something on the piece of paper. Bellows turned to catch a glimpse of Buck's clipboard, but Buck quickly held it against his chest. "Sorry, Sir. Confidential."

Bellows nodded, and then led them to another section of the lab. "Doctor, do you perform surgeries here?"

"Sometimes, if it's an extreme emergency."

"I would like to see your surgical supplies."  
"Of course. This way."

He led them into another room. Buck and Wilma walked around the room, Buck making various notes on his paper. "Doctor, where do you keep your anesthesia?"

He pointed to a supply closet. Wilma saw the lock, glanced back at the Doctor. "Open it, please."

Bellows pulled out a key chain and fumbled to find the right key. He opened the door and stepped back to allow Wilma access. She reached in and grabbed one of the contents. She showed it to Buck who nodded, then looked down to write something on the paper. Wilma raised the container to her face to carefully inspect the outside casing. She cocked her head, looked toward Buck.

"Captain Nelson, do you have a list of serial numbers for the anesthesia in question?"

He flipped up a couple pieces of paper. He pointed to the paper and showed it to Wilma. She nodded, turned back to face Doctor Bellows.

"Doctor, are you aware of the recall?"

His eyes widened. "Recall? On what?"  
Wilma held up the container in her hand. "On this!"

He shook his head quickly. "No, I haven't heard anything about a recall!"

Wilma sighed heavily, tapped Buck's clipboard. He immediately began to write something down. She turned back to the doctor. "I suggest you read the inter-departmental memos more carefully. The serial numbers on this container match the serial numbers of a batch of defective anesthesia."

"Defective anesthesia?"

"Yes. Apparently in the manufacturing process, something got into the formula. Instead of being a harmless and effective anesthesia, it has been causing some nasty side affects such as permanent paralysis, dementia, and in more than a couple cases, death."

"I had no idea," Bellows said surprisedly.

"If you had read the memo, you would." She handed the anesthesia to Buck. She then began to rifle through the rest of the cabinet. After a few moments, she nodded and closed the cabinet door. "It looks like the rest of your supplies are safe. I'll have to take this with me."

"I can dispose of it here," Bellows offered.

Wilma chuckled slightly. "I'm sure you could. No, I have to take this back to our lab and test it." She extended her hand to shake with Bellows. "Thank you, Doctor. You have been most helpful. I'll inform my superiors about your cooperation."

"D-did we pass?"

Wilma patted the clipboard. "You will have our report within three business days. Have a good night, Doctor."

Bellows followed Buck and Wilma to the exit. When the door closed and they were halfway down the hall, Buck turned to face Wilma. He chuckled slightly.

"Wow, I am glad you're on my side!"

"So you think I did okay?" she asked.

"You had me quaking in my boots!"

Wilma giggled. "That was fun. Let's go find someone else to harass!"

Buck looked away. "I think I've created a monster!"

"I am still your superior officer, Captain!"

Buck saluted. "Yes, Colonel."

He started back down the hall. Wilma hurried to catch up. "We have the anesthesia now. Is it time to go to the rocket?"

Buck nodded. "Yep. I'm sure there will be someone else along the way for you to harass."

Wilma smiled broadly. "Good. I'm beginning to like this!"


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

They went back to the Mustang. Wilma looked at him questioningly. "What are we doing back here?"

"This is just the administration building. The shuttle is on the launching pad. That's not exactly around the corner."

He fired up the Mustang and pulled onto the access road. They drove for several minutes before coming to another MP and another closed gate. The soldier came to the side of the car.

"What are you doing here in the middle of the night, Captain?"

"Well, Corporal, we are on a-"

Wilma opened her door and got out of the car. Immediately the corporal trained his gun on her. Wilma didn't flinch.

"Corporal, what do you see on my uniform?"

"A silver eagle, Ma'am."

"And what rank does that make me?"

"Colonel!" he said as he saluted.

Slowly she walked around the front of the car. "That's right. I am a colonel. Remind me again what rank you are."  
He looked down. "Corporal."

"Do you wish to remain a corporal?"

"As opposed to what, Ma'am?"

"Well I'm not talking about a promotion!"

"Yes, Sir, uh, Ma'am!"

"Now, Corporal. State your duty."

"I am on guard duty, Ma'am."

"What are you guarding?"

"The road to the Space Shuttle Ranger Three."

Wilma glanced at Buck and smiled. "And you are doing an excellent job. Now the Captain and I need to inspect the shuttle one last time before it will be cleared to launch. Do you wish to delay the launch?"

"No, Ma'am. But I need to see your clearance…, Ma'am."

She shook her head. "Brains are not your strong suit, are they?"

Buck exited the car to stand beside the corporal. "All due respect, Colonel, the Corporal here is only trying to do his job."

"Yes, of course. Corporal, do you know who General Roberts is?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Good. I am Colonel Deering, special attaché to General Roberts. He has given me specific orders to assure that the space shuttle is safe for the good Captain here. You do know who this Captain is, don't you?"

"Yes, Ma'am. We all recognize Captain Rogers."

"And you know that he is the one who will be launching in a few hours?"

"Of course, Ma'am."

"Then I suggest you allow me through the gate so I can do my job."

"I'll have to call my superior to clear you through."

Wilma rolled her eyes. "And what rank is your superior?"  
"A Lieutenant, Ma'am."

She nodded once. "And does this Lieutenant outrank a Colonel?"

"No, Ma'am, but-"

"Perhaps you can call General Roberts, Colonel. I'm sure he could clear up this mess," Buck offered.

Wilma nodded again. "I could, but do you know what time it is?"

"It can't be helped, Ma'am," Buck replied.

Wilma sighed. "Very well. Do you know what happened the last time I interrupted his sleep?"

"Yes, Colonel, I do. But it can't be helped. It didn't take you long to make it back to Colonel."

"Fine. But I'm not going to be the one to make the call." She looked at the corporal. "Come with me, Corporal. I'll give you the number to call."

He hesitated for a long moment. "That's okay, Colonel. You can pass. I'd rather not disturb the general. I've, uh, heard stories about him. Are they all true?"

Wilma looked at him blankly. "Probably. He is not always a pleasant man."

The corporal hurried back to the guardhouse to open the gate. Buck and Wilma returned to the Mustang and continued down the road. Wilma turned to Buck.

"I just thought of something. Aren't we going to need space suits?"

"Yeah."

"Is that our next destination?"

"Nope. We're going straight for the shuttle."

"But-"

He grinned. "The shuttle has extra suits onboard already. It usually holds anywhere from five to seven passengers. There will be enough extra suits aboard for the two of us."

When they finally reached another building, they got out and went toward the entrance where they were confronted by another guard.

"Good evening, Colonel, Captain. What business do you have here?"

Wilma smiled pleasantly. "I am with the NRC. I'm here to inspect the shuttle."

The guard furrowed his eyebrows. "NRC? There's nothing nuclear onboard."  
"Are you sure?" she asked. "What's your security clearance?"  
"Uhh," he stammered.

"Exactly. Now if it were common knowledge that there may possibly be… nuclear components onboard the space shuttle, what do you think that would do to the security of this project?"

"Colonel, he's not getting paid to think," Buck suggested.

"Yes, you're right. Now do I need to get General Roberts out of bed again tonight to talk to you? He wasn't happy when the private at the gate called him earlier."

"There's no private at the gate," the soldier replied.

Buck smiled. "There is now. I believe he used to be a corporal, at least he was when he came to work tonight."

The soldier saluted. "What do you need me to do?"

"We need a ride out to the shuttle," Buck said. "You drive us out there, and then come back. You'll be back here before anyone misses you."

"But if I drive you out there, how will you get back?"

"I could tell you," Wilma said, "But I'd have to kill you."

"Colonel, don't scare him. Don't worry, we'll find our own way back."

The soldier nodded and led them to a nearby golf cart. He drove them to the launch pad where the space shuttle was perched. When he stopped, Buck and Wilma exited the golf cart. The soldier paused for a moment.

"Something wrong?" Wilma asked.

"Why would the NRC come out here in the middle of the night?"

She grinned slightly. "It makes it easier to see if anyone is glowing."

Quickly the soldier saluted and then stomped on the accelerator. Buck had to giggle again. "Easier to see the glow?"

She shrugged. "It worked!"

"I think you're beginning to enjoy the twentieth century."

She shrugged. "I think it's just the company."

"And I though Fletch was good," Buck commented.

"Who's Fletch?"

"Nobody."

She looked up at the massive structure above them. "Well we made it to the shuttle."

Buck nodded as he started toward the elevator. "Now we climb aboard and get ready. Our mission is just beginning."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Buck and Wilma watched from their hiding spots as the other Buck entered the cockpit. Several other attendants helped him to get situated in the pilot's seat, and get hooked into the shuttle's environmental controls. When they were satisfied everything was perfect, they all left the cockpit and noisily closed and locked the hatch. Within just moments, the other Buck was sleeping soundly. Buck scrambled out of his hiding spot and climbed into the copilot's seat. Wilma climbed into the seat behind the Buck still awake.

"Are you going to be able to get him out of his seat?" she asked.

"Probably not in this position. We'll have to wait until we're in space and in a less vertical position. I don't want to drop him all the way to the back of the cockpit, which is currently the bottom of the cockpit. I should be able to do everything I need to from here."

"Should be able to?"  
"Most of the launch is computerized. I won't have much real control until we get rid of these rocket boosters. All we can do now is to buckle up and enjoy the ride. From here on, Wilma, I need you to be quiet. I'm tapping into NASA's communications."

She simply nodded, not realizing until afterwards that Buck couldn't see her. Buck hooked himself up to all the sensors except for environmental controls. Instead he turned on the oxygen supply of his space suit and indicated for Wilma to turn on her oxygen supply. Buck and the control room exchanged scads of information and bantering until it was nearly time for launch.

"T-minus one minute," said the tower.

Buck's heart raced. He'd almost forgotten the thrill of sitting atop a roman candle with countless pounds of thrust preparing to shoot him into the void of space. Buck pressed some switches on his console.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has displayed the 'No Smoking' sign. Please return to your seats and place them in their upright position."

"No unnecessary chatter, Captain Rogers!"

"Yes, Sir, General Roberts. All systems are a go for Ranger Three."

"Prepare for ignition."

"T-minus thirty seconds."

"Auto guidance is a go."

"Environmental controls are a go."

"Life signs are a go."

"Computer systems are a go."

"T-minus ten seconds."

"Ranger Three, prepare for ignition."

"T-minus five seconds."

Suddenly the ship began to vibrate violently. Wilma looked around nervously. "Ranger Three, we have ignition."

"Three… two… one… launch!"

The shuttle suddenly lurched straight up. The entire ship began to lift slowly into the air. "We have liftoff. We are now clear of the tower. Everything is proceeding as normal."

The ship began to rapidly pick up speed as it lifted higher and higher into the atmosphere. The shuttle rotated slightly as it continued to climb into the atmosphere. One of the computer attendants in launch control rapidly pored over the mass of data being processed by his computer. He looked at it strangely for several minutes before calling the attention of his superior.

"Sir, something's wrong with the thrust."

"What is it?"

"It's not as much as anticipated."

"Are we still in the green?"

"Yes, Sir, there is plenty to make it to orbit."

"Then what's the problem?"

"According to calculations, the shuttle is a little behind where it should be."

"How far behind?"  
"A half mile."

"What would account for the discrepancy?"

"According to quick estimates, it's almost as if the shuttle had an excess weight of approximately three hundred fifty pounds."

"How is that possible?"

"There could be a micro-fiber block in the exhaust chamber."

"Anything life threatening?"

"No, Sir."  
"Fine. Carry on. Keep monitoring the situation."

Several minutes later the booster rockets detached and the second stage fired to life, causing the shuttle to lurch forward again. The inhabitants of the cockpit were forced into the deepest recesses of their seats as the shuttle accelerated rapidly away from the planet far below.

"Initial detachment complete."

"Roger, Flight Control. Everything up here is looking good."  
"Affirmative, Ranger Three. In thirty seconds we will be transferring you to Houston Main Control."

"Roger. Thanks, you guys. This was another flawless launch. When I get back, I'll buy all you guys lunch… on General Robert's tab!"

Once they made it to orbit, Buck disconnected from the seatbelts and turned off the microphone. He looked back at Wilma who looked pale.

"What do you think?"

"I don't know how your people did it. Don't your scientists know what inertial dampeners are?"  
Buck shook his head. "Nope. Well, we should be able to move Buck from his seat now."

In the weightlessness, the process of moving the unconscious pilot to another seat proved to be easy. Buck then took the vacant seat while Wilma commandeered the navigator's chair.

"Give me a couple minutes and I'll have the calculations for the course change to the stargate," she said.

"If we use half of our supply of fuel at maximum burn, we should be there in three days."

"Three days?"

"Sorry, Wilma. This isn't exactly as fast as a starfighter."

She sighed. "I know. But what are we going to do for three days?"

"I brought a deck of cards. I can show you how to play gin rummy."

"What about food?"

"Remember, this was supposed to be a five month reconnaissance mission. There's enough food onboard for a few days."

She nodded. "I have the calculations."

Buck ran them into the computer and waited for a reply. A moment later, he tapped a button on the console. "I can make the course change in forty-two minutes when our orbit comes back around. In the meantime, sit back and get comfortable. We're gonna be here for awhile."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The technician softly knocked on the open door. The older gentleman sitting at the desk looked up. "Yes, what is it?"

"General Roberts, I have an update on Captain Rogers and Ranger Three."

He waved him into the room. "Well don't just stand there, man. Give me your report. I'm a busy man."

"Yes, Sir." He scurried into the room and stood nervously near the desk. "Ranger Three has changed course again."

"Do you still have it on radar?"

"Yes, Sir. All systems appear to be operating as they should, but communications is still out. I don't believe the problem is at our end. I believe that Ranger Three is receiving our transmissions. But for some reason, Captain Rogers is either unwilling or unable to contact us."

"Unwilling?" the general questioned.

The technician stood his ground. "It's a possibility, Sir."  
"Captain Rogers is one of the best damn people I know. There's not a traitorous bone in his body. You got that, Mister?"

"Yes, Sir. I meant no disrespect or collusion, Sir. I am a scientist trying to cover all the possibilities, Sir."

The general nodded. "Then find out what's wrong with Ranger Three. Is Ranger Four being prepped as I requested?"  
"Yes, Sir. But it's going to take at least three weeks to prep and move Ranger Four to the pad."

"I am aware of the time frame. Captain Rogers has enough supplies onboard to last at least eight months if he rations it right. If there's any possibility of retrieving him, I want it done."

"Yes, Sir."

"Do have any idea where this new course change is taking him?"

The technician laid a map onto the desk and pointed to a point. "This is where Ranger Three is right now. Its new heading will take it on this trajectory here."

Roberts nodded in acknowledgement. "And what's on that trajectory?"

"Nothing, as far as we know."

Roberts sighed. "Very well. Keep me posted."

"Yes, Sir."

The technician saluted and then quickly exited the office.

Buck held up the food packs. "It's lunch time!"

Wilma shook her head. "Is it haddock?"

"Right! If you close your eyes and use your imagination, maybe."

"What world are you living in?"

He chuckled. "Here's his food pack."

"Why can't you call him by name? His name is-"

"I know what his name is. It's me, remember? I don't know, talking to yourself is one thing, but actually seeing yourself? That's a little… creepy."

"Then call him William or Anthony or something."

"About Bill."

"That works."

Buck nodded. "Okay. Here's Bill's food pack when you get done."

She grinned. "Why is it always my job to feed Bill?"

"Because if he wakes up, I'd rather he see you and not me!"

"How long can we keep him…"

"Unconscious? Oblivious? Unaware?"

Wilma nodded. "Yes."

Buck shrugged. "I don't know. We're almost out of anesthesia, so not much longer, I suppose. How long until we reach the stargate?"

"I updated the course this morning. We should be in transmission range soon."

"Good."

"What's wrong? Getting 'cabin fever', as you're so fond of saying?"

Buck smirked. "No, I just want to get this over with. I don't like being on the same ship as… Bill!"

When Buck was done with his lunch, he jumped into the pilot's seat. He pretended to be working on the computer as he watched Wilma feeding the nearly unconscious but heavily dazed version of his younger self. She glanced up and laughed at him. He quickly turned to the console.

When Wilma was done with her lunch and Bill's, she floated into the seat beside Buck. "I can't get used to this weightlessness," she mumbled.

"Sorry. We didn't have artificial gravity generators."

"I know." She turned to look at the navigational instruments. After a quick mental calculation, she pointed to a blank space in the sky. "The stargate should be right there."

Buck shook his head and shrugged. "I'm not picking anything up on scanners."

"Are you using the right frequency?"

"I'm using the same one that Doctor Huer used."

"Hmmm," Wilma mumbled. "Try going a little higher. Maybe the signal degraded a little. Five hundred years can make a difference on a subspace lock."

Several minutes later, Buck shook his head. "It's no good. I tried going up and down on the frequency. These controls just don't have tight enough calibration. They're too compressed."

"So now what?"

Buck shrugged. "We keep looking. We can't give up yet."

"I don't suppose you have any weapons onboard," Wilma asked.

"Nope." He suddenly snapped his fingers. "But there is something I can try! You're positive that it should be right there?" he pointed to the position she had indicated just a moment ago.

"Yes, it should be right there."

He nodded. He grasped the controls for the engines as Wilma looked on silently. He fired the stabilizing engines briefly just long enough to begin to rotate the shuttle. When they were a hundred fifty degrees from where they were, he fired the main engines. The shuttle continued to rotate. When the shuttle passed two hundred twenty degrees from its original course, Buck cut the main engines. Just before the shuttle made a complete three hundred sixty degree arc, Buck fired the reverse stabilizer engine to stop the shuttle from rotating. Wilma looked at Buck questioningly.

"What was that all about?"

"I'm hoping that the particles of our exhaust can help us to find the gate," he explained.

"I don't think that's going to be necessary," Wilma stated.

"Why? What do you mean?"

"Somebody's coming through the gate from the other side! Look! Right there!"

Sure enough right where Wilma had originally pointed, there appeared a sudden pinpoint of light. The pinpoint of light rapidly grew into the familiar formation of the stargate being activated.

"Something's coming through the stargate?" Buck breathed.

"And it's big," Wilma stated.

Within seconds a massive ship appeared from almost out of nowhere. Buck and Wilma exchanged shocked glances.

"What's going on here?" Buck asked. "There's no record of alien contact with Earth before the holocaust?"

"Buck! I recognize this ship, or at least the design of this ship!"

"Who is it?"

"It's a Gaussian war ship!"

"Gaussian? I thought they were our allies!"

"They are now, or at least in my time they are! What's a Gaussian war ship doing here on its way to Earth?"

Buck shrugged. "I don't know, but I think we're going to find out. They've just activated a tractor beam. We're being pulled in."

"What?"

He nodded his head once. "We're being pulled into that war ship. Into the belly of the whale."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"Who are the Gaussians?" Buck asked as they scrambled to move Bill into a long footlocker in the cargo bay area.

"They are from the planet of Gauss in the Alpha sector. They were our first allies in the Earth Alliance. In fact, they were the ones who proposed the idea of the Alliance in the first place several decades ago. We had heard about the Emperor Draco and his conquest of most of the galaxy, and we felt we needed to defend ourselves against their advances. So the Gaussians and Earth entered into the Alliance and we set about together to find other free planets to join defenses against the Draconians."

Bill's head banged against the side of the footlocker. "Careful!" Buck exclaimed. "Watch my head! His head! That head!"

"Sorry!"  
"So if the Gaussians are such good guys, why are they here with a warship?"

Wilma shrugged. "I don't know. In fact, we don't know a lot of history about the Gaussians. I do know that about three hundred years ago they were the major reason we were able to rebuild our cities and our technology. In fact, a lot of our technology and advances came directly from them. If it weren't for the Gaussians, we'd probably still be in the dark ages of the holocaust."

"That still doesn't explain why they're here in the twentieth century with a warship heading toward Earth."

"I'm sorry, that's all I know about them."

Buck nodded. "I know. I just tend to ask questions when I'm nervous. And getting tractor-beamed into a warship tends to make me nervous. You said about three hundred years ago they decided to help Earth. What did they do before that?"  
"I don't know. They are pretty secretive about their history. Doctor Theopolis might know a little more than I do."

"Too bad he's not here."

A loud clanking sounded throughout the ship. Buck and Wilma suddenly fell to the floor. Wilma stood straight up as Buck slammed the lid of the footlocker.

"Sounds like we've landed," she said needlessly.

Buck nodded. "Yeah, and they've got gravity. It works, too," he said as he slowly stood up.

"So why are we hiding Bill?"

"I don't want to explain why there are two of me running around this ship. Too bad this shuttle wasn't made for smuggling. This isn't exactly a good place to hide someone."

"Let's just hope they don't come looking. Come on. If we meet them outside on our own, maybe they won't search."

They quickly made their way to the cockpit hatch. As soon as the hatch was opened, Buck stuck his head out to see several dozen armed soldiers. Slowly he lowered himself out of the hatch followed by Wilma. They stood by the hatch and raised their hands into the air. A soldier in a different uniform from the rest approached them.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I am Buck Rogers, Captain of the United States Air Force."

"Colonel Wilma Deering."

"You are from the planet Earth?"

"Yes. Can we put our hands down?"

A dozen rifles raised as the soldiers took a step forward. Buck shot his hands back into the air. "Okay, okay. I guess not."

"What are you doing here?"

"We were brought here by you."

The man struck Buck across his face with a backhand. "Is that supposed to be a joke on your part?"

"No, Sir. The colonel and I just launched from Earth about three days ago. We are on a five-month expedition, experiment, really, to determine the feasibility of landing on Mars. That would be the fourth planet of our solar system. We were here minding our own business, no offense, when suddenly your ship appears from out of nowhere and kidnaps us."

"What were you doing by the stargate?"

Buck looked at Wilma, then back at the man in front of them. "What's a stargate?" he asked.

"Is there anyone left aboard your ship?"

"No. It was just the two of us."

"Uh-huh." The man whirled around to face his soldiers. "Take them to Security Level One. And search the ship."

He strolled rapidly across the hangar. Buck and Wilma exchanged glances again before the soldiers surrounded them. Buck shrugged and lowered his head. "Lead the way, guys."

Once their hands were secured behind their backs by handcuffs, Buck and Wilma were led into the interior of the ship.

The large man fidgeted in the slightly too small chair nervously. He waited impatiently as the rest of the crew scurried around him on the bridge. Just as he was about to stand up and demand to know what was going on, the captain of the warship stepped up to the makeshift throne.

"Minister Turon, we have successfully managed to unlock the stargate."

"Unlock it? What are you talking about, Captain Arnogg? I thought the stargate was already unlocked. We've been sending scout ships to Earth for years!"

"Yes, Sir. There were different size limitation locks on the stargate. It looks like the locks have been there for centuries, like someone was trying to keep this planet hidden from the rest of the galaxy. We finally managed to unlock the last size limitation seal. We can enter the stargate anytime you are ready, Sir."

"Give the order, Captain. I want to be standing on Earth before the week is over."

"Yes, Sir."

The captain went to his command chair. "Helm, take us into the stargate. One quarter speed."

"Aye, Captain."

The large ship exited the stargate. Suddenly the bridge became abuzz with activity. People scurried around their stations rapidly. Minister Turon squeezed out of his throne and waddled over to stand at the captain's chair.

"What's going on, Captain Arnogg?"

"There appears to be a small spaceship off of the port bow. It's like nothing we've ever seen before."

"How small?"

"About half the size of your personal shuttle."  
"So it is no threat to the ship?"

Arnogg laughed. "Not hardly. We could run right through it and never even feel it scraping the hull. I've landed my fighter on asteroids bigger than that."

"Carry on, Captain. Full speed ahead."

Just as he was about to give the order, an officer quickly whirled his chair around and stood to be recognized. "Captain! Captain Arnogg!"

The captain turned to his left. "Yes?"  
"Sensors are showing that there are life signs aboard the ship!"

"Life signs? Are you sure? There's actually somebody on board that thing?"

"Yes, Sir. There is definitely somebody aboard that ship."

"How many?"

"It's hard to say. At least two."

"What do you mean at least two? Don't you know how to read the data?"

"Yes, Sir. There are two strong sources, and then one that is giving ambiguous data. It could just be a fault or an echo."

"It doesn't matter. Run them over."  
"Wait," Minister Turon bellowed. "Can you determine where the ship is from?"

"Initial data indicates they came from Earth."

Turon scratched at the base of his long beard. "What are you thinking, Minister?" Arnogg questioned.

"I have never before met a representative of a world I have conquered, or yet to conquer. This could be interesting. Interesting indeed. Have them brought aboard. I would like to entertain them for awhile."

"What about your conquest of Earth?"

Minister Turon shrugged. "It's not going anywhere. And when I get bored of entertaining, they will meet the same fate as the rest of the planet: their death! I'm going to go and prepare for their arrival. I'll let you know, Captain, when I am ready for them."

He chuckled to himself as he headed for the exit. "Yes, this is going to be interesting. Interesting indeed!"


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Buck had no idea how long he'd been locked up in that tiny cubicle of a cell. The cell was pitch black with perfectly smooth walls. From one end of the cell to the other took him four steps. The other walls were three steps away. He had tried to jump for the ceiling, but had not found it. He had found nothing else in the cell at all. It was completely barren except for him. After feeling every inch of the wall at least three times for some evidence of a seam or anything that he could use to escape, he gave up and sat down on the cold, hard, metallic floor. He had been there so long, that eventually he fell asleep in the same position he had sat down in. However at some point during his sleep, he had fallen over. That was the position he found himself in when at last a noise sounded outside the door, wherever the door was. He tried to scramble to his feet, but the act of standing up so swiftly made him dizzy and he banged his head off the wall.

A section of wall rose in an instant allowing light from the corridor to flood into the room. Buck tried to raise his hand to block the light but was too slow. He felt hands spin him around and slam his face into the wall. Then his own hands were quickly bound behind his back again. Finally he was led into the corridor and forced to walk. It took about two minutes for his eyes to finally adjust to the difference in light. He was led down a maze of corridors for several minutes before finally stopping at a door. One of the soldiers tapped a button on the side of the door. It slid open and Buck was led inside.

"Buck!"

He turned to see Wilma sitting on a couch near the right side wall. The soldier undid Buck's handcuffs and then quickly disappeared out the door. He rubbed his wrists as he slowly walked toward the couch and inspected the room with his eyes.

"Wilma, what's going on?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"I don't know. I just got here myself."

"Do you know where 'here' is?"  
"That would be my personal quarters," bellowed a deep voice from the front of the room. They looked around momentarily until they saw the source. The large, rotund figure stepped into the lavishly decorated room from an adjoining annex.

"Who are you?" Buck demanded.

"Such manners," he scolded. "Is that any way to treat your host? Especially when I am the one who saved your lives?"

"How did you save our lives?" Wilma asked.

"I had my captain rescue you and your ship before we ran into you and totally demolished your puny craft. After all, a ship this size simply does not have an exceptional turning radius. I suppose it's one of the problems with having a ship so large."

"Do you throw all of your rescued space farers in jail?" Buck pondered.

The man bellowed with laughter. "I like you. You have a quality that is sorely lacking in a lot of men."

"And what quality is that?"  
"You don't scare easily. And you don't take any _bledam_."

Buck cocked his head. "What is _bledam_?"

The man bellowed again. "It's a Gaussian word. It means… oh, it doesn't matter what it means. It means I like you."

"My dad always told me I had moxie."

"What is 'moxie'?"

"Spunk. Kahunas."

"Ahh, that word I do know."

"You do?"  
"Certainly. I have been studying your world for quite some time."

"You have?"  
The man walked slowly toward them and then gently eased into the lounge chair directly across from the couch. "Oh, yes. I always observe and study the worlds I have targeted for conquest."

"Conquest? What kind of conquest?"  
The large man simply smiled. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Minister Turon of the planet Gauss. Ever hear of it?"

Buck shook his head. "I don't get out much."

"Yes, of course. So, if you don't mind my asking, how long have you been in your spaceship?"

"Three days," Wilma spoke up.

"Three days. It took you three days to get here from your planet?"

Buck nodded.

"Do you know how far this ship can travel in three days?"

"We're kind of new to space travel," Buck explained. "But that doesn't mean that we're unprotected."

Minister Turon smiled again. "And what kind of protection do you rely upon?"

Buck remained silent.

"Do you think I am interrogating you? Far from it. I am here to entertain you." He clapped his hands three times and half a dozen women came rushing into the room. Two of them carried plates of food, two carried drinks, and the other two simply began to dance to the music that had suddenly appeared. "Please try the green fruit. It is native to Gauss, but I'm told you have a fruit on Earth that's very similar: a kiwi?"

"Nice music," Buck complimented. "Do you have any Whitesnake?"  
"What is 'Whitesnake'? I do not believe I have ever heard of that kind of music."

The women placed the food on the small table separating the couch from the lounge chair. Buck and Wilma looked at the food, but instead sat back in the couch. Minister Turon noticed the mistrust.

"Aren't you hungry? I was told that you've been locked up for three days. You must be hungry and thirsty by now. Or is it that you think… Oh, that's it! You think the food has been poisoned!" Once again he bellowed in laughter. He leaned forward and took a less than modest portion of the food and immediately began to eat. "Oh, that's fine. If you don't want to eat, I wouldn't want the food to go to waste."  
"I don't think that's going to happen," Buck muttered inaudibly.

"What was that?"  
Buck reached for the plate. "If you insist."

"Minister Turon," Wilma started. "Why have you targeted Earth for conquest?"  
He shook his head. "I am sorry. I never mix business with pleasure." He placed a big hunk of meat into his mouth. "And right now I am in the middle of pleasure. Business will have to wait. Come, eat, drink, and be merry!"

"For tomorrow ye die?" Buck asked.

Turon merely smirked slightly. "That's up to you, my dear Captain."

Two hours of food, drink, and Gaussian rock and roll later, the room had died down again to just Buck, Wilma, and the Minister. He laughed as he turned to Wilma.

"Now we can talk business. What was your question again?"  
"I mean no disrespect, Minister, but why have you targeted Earth for conquest?"

The minister leaned back in his chair, propped his feet against the table that had only recently held a generous amount of food. "Because it's there and because I can."

"But we are a peaceful people. We pose no threat to you or the rest of the civilizations in the galaxy."

"How do you know there are other civilizations in the galaxy?"

Wilma didn't even blink. "We're here and you're here. That can't be everyone."

He smiled at Buck. "I like her, too. She has… moxie! Kahunas!"

"That she does," he admitted.

"No, seriously? Why attack Earth?"

Minister folded his arms. "You say you are a peaceful people? Then how do you explain World War 2, World War 1, the Bolshevik Revolution, Viet Nam, Korea, the Cuban Missile Crisis, terrorist bombings, your country's use of nuclear weapons? Shall I continue?"  
"Misunderstandings," Buck said.

"I call it the idiocy of humanity," Minister argued. "Even now there are two nations on your so-called peaceful world that are poised and prepared to annihilate each other and everyone else on your planet, is there not? I believe they are called the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics. Oh, and don't forget the People's Republic of China. I know I wouldn't, if I lived on your world."

Buck lowered his eyes for only a brief moment. "I will admit that our world is not paradise. But it is home to six billion people, many of whom I know and love. I am under the belief that, yes we're not perfect and never will be, but this is our world and nobody else's. We all make mistakes and sometimes those mistakes kill people. But we are not prepared to hand over the Earth to someone who has no claim to it."

"I have a better scenario for you. What if I could promise you no more wars on your planet Earth."

"And how do you propose on doing that?" Wilma asked.

Minister nodded arrogantly. "I consider myself a humanitarian. I find worlds that live under constant strife, very similar to your own. I send in my people and within days, or a week at the most, all that strife has been eliminated."

"How do you manage that?" Wilma asked.

Buck's head dropped forward. He looked up at the minister. "You annihilate the indigenous population."

"Your planet is a prime candidate for my restoration. Are you a gardener, Captain?"

"I do some gardening."

"I pose a scenario. You have a beautiful rose garden, the best in the nation. You have won awards for your garden. What do you do if you have a rose with a terrible blight, one that cannot be cured?"

"You dig it out of the garden," Buck replied.

"Exactly! That is what I am doing. The planet Earth is a beautiful rose garden, one of the finest in the galaxy. But it has a blight. So I need to eliminate the blight so the rest of the garden can shine."

"But you're assuming one thing that I'm not willing to concede."

"And what is that?"  
"In your scenario, you mentioned a blight that was incurable. I don't believe that's the case. Humans can learn to live together in harmony. All we need is some time."

"Unfortunately, Captain, time is not a luxury you or your planet enjoys."

Buck glared at him. "And who made you judge, jury, and executioner?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"Come, Captain. Your own history is full of stories, is it not? How the strong conquer the weak? I will take my place in human history among them, with one exception. I will be the last one to be on that list. What is it, Captain? Do you want to hit me? Strangle me? Kill me? What's stopping you? I am outnumbered two to one, after all. By the time my personal guard get here, I could be dead."

Minister Turon sat up in the chair. He reached into a pocket of his outfit and produced a small pistol. He placed the pistol on the table and slid it toward Buck. Buck picked it up, glanced up at the minister. Instead of firing the pistol, he leaned back in the couch and tossed it back toward the minister. Just before it hit the large man, a brief flash of blue lit up around the minister. The gun bounced off the personal force field and fell harmlessly to the floor. Almost instantly six heavily armed soldiers barged into the room with their weapons ready to shoot.

"How did you know, Captain?"  
"Nobody is that secure unless he's got something up his sleeve," he said as he rose to his feet slowly. "In your case, it's a big sleeve. You know I'm going to try to stop you."

The big man bellowed one last time before the soldiers led Buck and Wilma back to their cells. "I wouldn't expect anything less of a soldier. Good night, Captain. We will speak one more time before I destroy you and everyone you ever knew. Oh, and have a good night's sleep. Sleep is healthy for the body and the soul. And if you don't have your health, what do you have?" he hollered as Buck and Wilma were led into the corridor.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Instead of being returned to the individual cells they had occupied earlier, Buck and Wilma were taken to another room where they were incarcerated together. This room was almost total opposites of the earlier lockup. The room was spacious, well-lit, and almost comfortable looking. The only downfall was the locked exit to the room. Just as they reached the room, they noticed a well-dressed man walking down the corridor toward them.

"You're the one from the hangar," Buck said. "Are you here to get more information from us?"

"No. We have all the information we need from you. I am Deputy Minister Kentara. Minister Turon requested that you be moved to more accommodating settings. You probably would have been here in the first place if you hadn't lied to us in the hangar."

"Lied?"

Kentara simply smirked. "We found your partner in the cargo area of your spaceship. Remarkable similarity to you."

"My twin brother."

"May I ask why he was drugged and stashed into a small storage facility?"

"He was trying to seduce Colonel Deering," Buck said. "And since we are almost identical, she sometimes has difficulty telling us apart."

The man smirked, nodded. "I understand. Actually, you've made our doctor's job much easier than it normally would have been. In his weakened state, he will be much more susceptible for interrogation. Well, Earthling, I suggest you enjoy your stay here tonight. It will most likely be the last night you have the chance to enjoy."

"I thought you said you had no need for information from us."

"We don't. You've made it easy for us." He laughed as he headed back down the hall.

Buck and Wilma were shoved into the room and the door locked noisily behind them.

The man stepped into the room, stopped to look at the guard who closed and locked the door behind him. He turned to look at the two sleeping humans. He pulled out a small device and went to the female first. He pressed the device against her neck, and then repeated the process to the male. In seconds, both were beginning to stir and moan. After a minute or so, Buck and Wilma were alert enough to realize that they were no longer alone.

"Who are you?" Wilma asked.

"My name is Vaahn."

Buck sat up on the cot he had been sleeping on. "What do you want from us?"

The man grasped a chair from the center of the room and set it down nearer the two cots. He then sat in it backwards. "I am almost ashamed to admit it, but I am here to ask for your help."

Buck jerked his head to look at Wilma who had done the same thing. Slowly he turned back to face the man.

"That's not exactly what I was expecting to hear."  
"How can we help you?" Wilma asked. 'We're a little indisposed at the present moment, if you hadn't noticed."

"I need you to kill someone for me."

"You Gaussians are just full of surprises, aren't you?" Buck said. "Why should we help you? What can you offer us in return?"

"I can get you out of this cell and returned to your ship," Vaahn said hopefully.

"A lot of good that's gonna do us if Earth gets destroyed."

Vaahn shook his head. "It might not if everything goes as planned."

Buck rested his head on the palm of his hand. "I'm listening."

Vaahn nodded. "You have met the minister, right?"  
Wilma sighed. "Yes. He has some… questionable motives and ideals."

"Yes, he does. That's why we want him dead."  
"We?"  
He nodded. "Yes. There is a growing movement back home in opposition to Minister Turon's current tactics. He is growing bolder and bolder with each world he assimilates. He was a good leader at first. But his total disregard for other life is, well it's something that many of us cannot stand for."

"I don't see how this is going to help Earth," Buck questioned.

"My planet, Gauss, is a very populated planet. Every hundred years our population doubles. We can barely support the people we have right now. The minister came to power on promises he would find suitable worlds for us to expand and alleviate our growing population problem. At first he delivered on that promise. He found an uninhabited world which we colonized. Then we found another world not far away from that one. It was not uninhabited. It had an indigenous population, albeit very primitive, but still intelligent. He killed everyone on that planet and claimed it for Gauss. In subsequent years, he has assimilated three more such planets, all having increasingly higher levels of civilization. Your planet Earth is the most civilized, advanced planet he has set his sights on."

"And you think killing him is going to stop the process?" Wilma asked.  
"No, but it'll be a start."  
"Then I still don't see how this is going to benefit us or Earth," Buck mused.

"We have been trying to get close enough to Minister Turon for three years to assassinate him, but he is a very careful man. The two of you were closer to him last night than any of us has been in three years. And he has plans to see you again before he executes his command against Earth."

"How do we kill him?" Wilma asked. "You know about his personal shield, don't you? He was very proud to show that to us last night."

"Minister Turon has one very glaring weakness."

"He likes to eat?" Buck joked.

Vaahn smiled broadly. "Exactly!"

Buck was taken aback. "I wasn't… okay, how do we exploit that?"  
Vaahn reached into a pocket and produced a small vial. "This is enough to kill him three times. All you have to do is sprinkle it on his food. And the best part of this poison is that it is harmless to Earthlings."

"How do you know it's harmless to us?" Wilma asked.

"It's been tested extensively by people in our movement, I do not wish to tell you by whom. It's best you don't know too much in case something goes wrong."

"But how was it tested on humans?"

"Oh, we've had human samples for years! We have been observing Earth for decades. That's how the minister is able to kill the population of the planets without destroying the planet itself."

"I don't get it."  
"DNA," Vaahn explained. "The weapons he uses are biological. Every planet he assimilates, he takes local samples of the indigenous population and has his staff create a biological weapon to annihilate the people without any damage to the surrounding wildlife or local structures. He then takes whatever he can salvage and sells them on the black market."

"Nice," Buck whispered sarcastically. "But what about Deputy Minister whatshisname?"

"Kentara?"

"Yeah, that's him. Won't he just pick up where the minister left off?"  
"Deputy Minister Kentara poses no threat to our movement. We can take care of him ourselves. It's just Minister Turon we can't get to."

"And you think this will stop the execution of Earth?"  
"It's the best I can do," Vaahn admitted.

Buck looked at Wilma and shrugged his shoulders. She nodded. Buck turned back to Vaahn. "Okay, we'll do it."

Vaahn shook his head. "No, not you. You," he said, pointing at Wilma. "We need you for something else."  
Buck sighed. "It's never easy, is it? So what do you have in mind for me?"  
"I need your help for me to uphold my part of the bargain. We need to sabotage the sensors and the tractor beam; otherwise you won't be able to leave the ship."

The corners of Buck's mouth began to upturn slightly. "I get to blow something up? Cool, I'm in! So when do we start?"

Vaahn stood abruptly. He handed the vial to Wilma. "Whenever the minister sends for you, find a way to be with the minister alone. While you are poisoning him," he turned to Buck, "You will be disabling the tractor beam controls and the sensors."

"How do I do that? I'm not familiar with the ship."

"You will have assistance. Wait for his sign."

"What kind of sign are we talking about?"

"You will know when he gives it to you. I must go. I've been in here too long."

Buck gently grasped Vaahn's shirt. "What about our partner? The other pilot they found in my ship?"

"He is fine. I will arrange for him to be returned to your ship. Trust me."

"I guess we're gonna have to. We have no other choice."

Vaahn sighed as he took one last look at them. "You have the opportunity to change the future of our world. Good luck. This is the only chance we're going to get."


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

They were led back into Minister Turon's chambers and left alone for a few minutes. Soon they heard the bellowing voice of the minister.

"Ahhh, Captain, Colonel, how did you sleep?"

"You drugged the food," Buck complained.

Minister laughed. "I truly am sorry, Captain. Lately it seems that is the only way I can get a good night's rest. Especially the night before another conquest. I tend to lie awake at night quivering with excitement!"

"Thanks," he muttered. "That wasn't a visual I needed."

"I trust you slept well?"

"Too well."

"Hmmm?" Minister suddenly smiled. "Oh, I see. Did I rob you of your last chance at human pleasure? I'll have to make it up to you later. Oh, that's right! I won't be able to! Because you'll be dead! I truly do apologize, Captain. But look at the bright side: at least you'll have the knowledge of what caused the extinction of all human life on the planet Earth, at least until you die yourself. I would provide you a port where you could watch the destruction of life on Earth, but there won't be any action. It's all rather quick and humane."

"Humane? You're planning on-"

Wilma placed a hand on his arm. "Buck, it's not helping. The minister is only doing what he thinks is right for his world."  
Buck and Minister Turon both turned to look at her in amazement. "Huh?" they said in unison.

"Wilma, what are you saying? He's planning on destroying the whole human race! How can you condone that?"

"You don't know the whole situation, Buck. Maybe the minister has good reasons for doing this."

They both turned to face the minister who smiled. "Yes, yes I do have good reasons! My people need your world to survive!"

"So do we!" Buck almost yelled.

"Minister," Wilma started. "Do you mind if we talk privately? I think the Captain has become too emotional. Maybe it's a side effect of the sleeping agent you gave us last night. He's not usually like this."

"Wilma, what are you doing?"

"Of course, my dear Colonel." Minister tapped a button on his chair. Six armed soldiers entered the room. "Please escort the captain back to his cell. The lady and I have some… business to discuss."

"Wilma! Don't do this, Wilma!" Buck screamed as he was led out of the room and back into the corridor.

Wilma turned to Minister. "What would you like to do first? Business or pleasure?"

The large man's face began to glow with excitement. "Pleasure? Pleasure you say? What kind of pleasure?"

"You robbed me of getting my final pleasure last night when you laced the food with your sleeping potion. If I am going to die today, don't I get my final request?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"I've been with many different men," Wilma grinned seductively. "Generals, athletes, world leaders… In fact I even had a religious leader, once. But I've never had someone from another planet before! Have you?"

"N-n-n-no."

"You mean to tell me that you have never experienced the act of being with a woman of another race?"

'N-n-n-no," he stammered.

Wilma smiled broadly as she approached the lounge chair. "Bring in the food, drink, and the dancing girls and I can show you the time of your life," she said huskily, smiling seductively.

Buck and his six-guard escort were walking down the hall in silence until his feet suddenly became entangled with one of the guards behind him. Buck tripped and fell to his knees, bumping into the soldier who had been walking directly in front of him. He turned to see Buck kneeling on the floor.

"What's the big idea, klutz? Watch where you're going, Earth scum!"

Buck shook his head, pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "He tripped me."

The soldier behind Buck grabbed him by the collar and lifted him off the floor. Buck whirled around to face him. The guard winked ever so slightly and secretly shoved something into Buck's hand. Buck head-butted the guard beside him as the other soldier took out another guard. Buck turned and bum-rushed the lead guard, slammed him into the nearby wall, and hit him over the head with the object in his hand, which he finally noticed as a pistol. He then spun and kicked the final guard in the chest. In seconds the skirmish was over. The soldier stepped up to Buck.

"My name is Aaris. Vaahn told you about me?"

Buck nodded once. "He said I would have assistance and a sign. That's all he said. I take it that was my sign?"

"Yes. I really appreciate what you and your friend are trying to do."

Quickly they went to gather up the guards and shove them into a nearby room. "No offense, but I'm not doing this for you or your people. I'm just trying to save the lives of my friends, family, and everyone on Earth."

"I am too. Maybe someday our worlds can become friends and allies."

Buck nodded. "That's definitely much better than the alternative."

"There are many of us who believe what the minister is doing is wrong. I promise you that if this works, things will be much different between our two worlds."

"I can only hope." He paused and pointed to one of the guards they had dragged into the room. "Hey, he looks about my size. Come here and help me get his clothes off."

The girls came into the room with the food and drinks, followed closely by the dancing girls and the music. Wilma picked up one of the fruits and pretended to inspect it closely. She looked at the minister.

"This isn't laced with your sleeping potion, is it?"

He smiled. "No, no. That's only my evening meal that gets the treatment. This meal is perfectly natural!"

Wilma grinned as she seductively placed the piece of fruit into her mouth. "Excellent. I wouldn't want you to fall asleep!"

She carefully moved her hand toward the minister's chest. Somewhat surprisingly, her fingers rubbed against the fabric of his clothing. "What happened to your personal shield?" she wondered.

"Oh, it's still there," he assured her. "It only activates when it recognizes a threat to my personal being."

"And I'm not a threat?" she asked.

He smiled. "Not at all."

She eased away from the minister and moved onto the dance floor. She began to sway and move to the rhythm of the music, almost matching the movements of the other dancers. After a few moments, she came back to the minister and gently grasped his hand. She tugged on it slightly.

"Oh, no, no, no," he chuckled. "I don't dance. I just watch."

"Do you want to watch your pleasure? Or do you want to participate?"

"I don't know how to dance."

"Do you know how to move?"

"Of course."

"Then you know how to dance. Dancing is an excellent form of foreplay! It also makes you hungry so you want to eat! I know how much pleasure you get from that! Come on," she urged. "You don't have to do much. Just feel the music and sway. I'll help you!"

Finally she convinced the minister to join them on the floor. They danced for only a moment before Wilma stopped.

"Where are you going?" Minister asked.

She placed her fingers against his lips. "I just want to take my shoes off. I'll be right back."

She went back to the area of the table and the food. Carefully she pulled the vial of poison out of her shoe. As she took off her other shoe, she cautiously poured the poison all over the food. She then threw the vial back into her shoe and placed them underneath the table. She then rejoined the minister on the dance floor and smiled seductively.

"Now I'm ready to get down!"


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Aaris led Buck deep into the interior of the massive warship. They traveled through a literal maze of corridors and lifts to get to their destination. Aaris stopped outside a door.

"This is where the tractor beam receives its power. All we have to do is disable it. Follow my lead."

The door opened and they entered into the massive room. Inside the control room was an outrageous number of computer systems and technicians. Buck leaned over to whisper to the slightly shorter Aaris.

"So which one do we blow up?"

Aaris went to his left and walked about a quarter of the way around the circular room. He stopped at an empty monitor and simply tapped a button.

"The tractor beam's been disabled," he said.

Buck furrowed his brows. "What? Just like that?" he whispered. "I don't get to blow anything up? Then what did you need me for?"

Aaris moved his finger. "Come with me."

Hesitantly Buck followed Aaris back out of the room. When they were alone in the corridor, Aaris began to speak.

"That was the easy one. Taking out the sensors will be a little harder."

"How about we take out the ship's weapons? Or the engines?"

"It will be impossible to take out the engines. This ship has four back-up engines. We would have to take them out all at the same time."

Buck nodded. "Okay, the engines are out. What about the weapons?"

"That would be easier than the engines, but impractical. We only have time to take out one of the ship's major components. We can take out the weapons, but since they are unnecessary to the minister's conquest, it wouldn't help us any. The weapon that is going to destroy your world is a biological weapon. There's no way we can stop that. These weapons systems are only for defensive purposes. If we take out the sensors, then not only do the weapons become obsolete, but so does navigation and pretty much everything having to do with the exterior of the ship. The ship would be literally blind and defenseless and unable to fire the biological weapon."

"Good point. The defenseless part is pretty much moot, since we don't have anything to attack the ship with anyway."

Aaris glared at Buck.

"Not that I would attack a ship this size anyway!"

"You have seen your share of battles?"

Buck nodded once. "More than my share."

"And you have always been victorious?"

"Not even close. I've lost my share."

Aaris sighed as they continued to walk down the corridor. "We have not seen any battles, at least not in the manner in which you have. Our battles consist of sending probes of poison into the planet's atmosphere and waiting for the inhabitants to die. That is a cowardly way of doing battle."

"Yeah, it's not exactly a fair fight. Especially if the other people don't even know they're under attack."

"Exactly. Don't get me wrong, uh…"

"Buck."

"Buck. Don't get me wrong, Buck. I do not long for battle. But I do not wish to kill defenseless people either."

"It's not very sporting. Tell me, Aaris. What happens if this whole plan of yours doesn't work? What if we kill your minister and your people are successful in killing the deputy minister? Is there someone else onboard who is capable of going through with sterilizing Earth?"

"There is Captain Arnogg, but I believe him to be an honorable man. I believe he is only acting under orders."

"So when this is over, what happens next? You guys just leave?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"Is it possible that you contact our world, just kind of let them know that we're not alone in the galaxy? That could be enough to scare my people into getting rid of all our weapons of mass destruction. It might be enough to encourage them to work together instead of constantly against each other."

Aaris stopped, rubbed his chin. "I don't know. It's against the inter-stellar laws."

"So is the mass genocide of entire planets, isn't it?" Buck asked incredulously.

"True." Aaris nodded once as he turned to Buck. "I will suggest that to Vaahn. That is the best I can do."

"Good enough. Now please tell me I get to blow something up!"

Aaris grinned. He pulled out a tiny steel spherical object from his pocket and showed it to Buck, who began to smile.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!"

Minister Turon lay on the floor, gasping for air. Wilma merely laughed at him for a moment, before reaching a hand down to meet his. With the help of the other six women in the room, they managed to lead him to his lounge chair. He plopped into the chair heavily.

"My heart is racing… I can't breathe!"

Wilma sat on the arm of the chair. "You need to get some more exercise!"

He managed to nod weakly. Wilma held a cup to his lips for a moment. When she placed the cup back down, she picked up one of the pieces of food and proceeded to feed it to the minister. After several minutes, the minister finally returned to normal. He smiled at Wilma.

"Maybe I won't destroy your race entirely. Maybe I'll keep you around for my personal entertainment."

Suddenly a sharp pain struck him in the chest. His eyes widened as he looked at Wilma. She simply shook her head.

"I don't think that's going to work for me."

He grasped at his throat as he gasped for air again. "What have you done to me?"

"Something that should have been done a long time ago. What do you think happened to the souls of all those people you murdered?"

"Urgh," he mumbled.

"Do you believe in poetic justice? You've killed how many people on how many planets? And the first person you actually meet from another planet happens to kill you. Isn't that just the saddest thing you've ever heard? I guess it's time to dig out the blight, don't you think, Minister?"

He managed to gasp for one more bit of air before his body went lifeless. Wilma turned to the six women in the room who had literally frozen where they were. She stood and retrieved her shoes. She reached into one and pulled out the vial that had contained the poison and simply dropped it onto the plate of food.

"I wouldn't eat that, if I were you. Is there someone here who can lead me to the flight hangar?"

One of the dancers stepped forward quickly. "I can. Is he… dead?"

Wilma nodded. "I'm sorry, but I'm just trying to save six billion people on-"

She shook her head. "Do not apologize, Miss. We are grateful to you. He was a very cruel and disgusting man. He got what he deserved."

Another woman stepped forward. "He deserved worse."  
"Is there anything we can do you for?" the first woman asked.

Wilma simply shook her head. "All I need is for someone to lead me back to my ship, and for you all to remain silent about this. Do not inform anyone that he is dead. At least not yet."

The first girl nodded, smiled. "We will tell no one. Come with me. I will lead you to your ship."

"What if someone sees you with me?"

"This is the minister's chamber. There is a secret, private passage to the hangar. No one will see us."

Wilma took one long, last look at the dead minister and then followed the dancer out of the room.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Aaris continued to lead Buck deeper into the engineering section of the ship. Eventually he stopped just as the corridor broke into two directions. He pointed down the left corridor.

"That's where the main terminals are."

Buck eased into position to peek down the hall. He saw two soldiers guarding a door at the end of the hall. "That should be easy enough," he mentioned.

Aaris shook his head. "That's not how we get in."

"It isn't?"  
"No. There is an access duct on the other side of the room. That's our entry point"

"Why?"

"It will be safer that way."

"Bah. We don't need an air duct when we have a door. I'm going this way."

"But there are guards!" Aaris argued.

"Yeah, and we're wearing the same uniforms that they are!"

Aaris thought for a moment. "Ahh, you're right."

Buck grinned. "So we use the door to get in and to get out. We only use the air ducts as a final resort. Trust me; I've done this a few times before. Just follow me."

Casually he turned the corner and started walking down the short hall with Aaris quickly following. The two guards rested their hands on their weapons, but did not draw them yet.

"This is a restricted area. I need to see your authorization," one of them said.

Buck lifted his hands into the air slightly. "Hey, we were just sent down here by the captain to relieve you."

"But we just started our shift an hour ago."

The first guard went for his weapon, but was too slow. Buck slammed the palm of his hand into the guard's chin, forcing his head to fly backwards into the nearby wall. He slumped to the floor in a heap. In the same motion, he took one step to his left and elbowed the other guard in the side of the face. Buck quickly grabbed the back of his head and leaned on the guard. He wrapped a foot around the soldier's leg and the two of them fell to the floor. Buck slammed the guard's face into the floor and then quickly stood up. He nodded once, looked at Aaris.

"The path is clear. They should have taken the day off like I offered."

Aaris smiled in awe. "You _are_ a great warrior!"

Buck pointed to the door. "That was nothing. Can we go in now?"

Aaris took a keycard from one of the downed guards and slid it through the id sensor. The door quickly opened. But before they went in, Aaris turned to Buck.

"Shouldn't we hide the bodies?"

"In about five minutes, nobody's going to be worried about finding two unconscious guards."  
"Ahh, good point."

They entered the large room. Almost immediately a technician inside the room began to head their way.

"I'm going to see your credentials."

"Certainly," Buck smiled as he drew his pistol. With three shots, all three technicians in the room were lying on the floor.

"Fantastic," Aaris breathed.

Buck looked around the room at all the computer equipment. "So which one do we blow up?"

"The one right there in the middle of the room."

Buck holstered his gun and pulled out the small spherical object Aaris had given him. He tossed it into the air and then caught it. "So how does this thing work?"  
"We have to get these people out of here."

Buck jerked his head. "Huh?"  
"We have to get these people out of this room. If they are left here with the bomb, they'll die in the explosion."

"But they're trying to kill six billion of my people! Why should I be worried about three?"  
"They're not trying to kill your world. That's Minister Turon. The rest of us only follow orders out of fear."

Buck breathed loudly, and then nodded. "You're right. Okay, let's drag them into the hall."

After setting the bomb onto the bank of computers, Buck grabbed the first technician and quickly dragged him into the doorway with the two guards. Aaris took the second one into the hall while Buck went to get the third. Just as he reached the corridor, two soldiers on patrol happened to be walking down the adjoining corridor. They glanced down the hall and saw Buck dragging the last technician into the hall and the pile of bodies already in the doorway. Buck stood up straight, grinned sheepishly.

"Oh, hi! I suppose you're probably wondering what's going on here. Well, uh, there was a gas leak and we had to evacuate the-"

They both pulled their weapons and began to fire. Buck fell to the floor instinctively, grabbed his gun and fired back. He yelled into the room, "Aaris, hurry up with that bomb! We got company, and I don't think they're buying my story."

Buck managed to knock out the other two soldiers, but not before a loud and annoying siren began to sound. Buck sighed and breathed heavily. "I don't suppose that's for the ice cream truck."

Just then another eight soldiers showed up and began firing. Buck quickly retreated through the door just as Aaris reached him. Buck grabbed him by the shirt and turned him around.

"Not that way."

Buck turned and fired at the door access panel. "That should hold them for a while."

"What do we do now?"

He patted Aaris on the shoulder. "Now we use the air duct."

"Okay, but we better hurry. The bomb is already set. If we are in the air duct when the bomb goes off…"

"How long is the timer?"  
"About a minute."

Buck's eyes widened. "Then what are we standing around here for? Lead the way to the air duct!"

They rushed across the room and opened the access tunnel. Aaris climbed in first. Buck glanced at his watch. "How long is this tunnel?"

"About a hundred yards."

Buck slapped Aaris on the butt with the back of his hand. "Then you'd better move it faster than that!"

They hurried down the tunnel as fast as they could. At the end, Aaris kicked out the screen and they both exited just as the bomb went off. Smoke and a slight flame blew out the air duct just as Buck was standing up. He waved some of the smoke away from the corridor.

"Oops, sorry. Beans are working."

Suddenly a laser beam embedded into the wall just to Buck's left. He turned to see the soldiers coming right for them. He pushed Aaris into a run. "Closing time!"

They broke into a run down the hall. When the corridor forked, Aaris turned to the right, then suddenly slowed and put his head down. Buck flew right by him threw himself into the air. He viciously kicked one soldier in the face as he grabbed the soldier beside him by the neck and slammed the back of his head into the floor. He then grabbed another pistol, got up, and continued running down the hall.

"Turn left!" Aaris yelled in pursuit.

When he turned left, he saw two more soldiers headed their direction. In the time it took for the soldiers to draw their weapons, Buck covered the distance between them and slid directly into their feet. Aaris quickly approached the soldiers still lying on the ground. He picked up both of their heads and slammed them into the floor. Buck grinned and nodded.

"Yeah, you're getting the hang of this!"

Aaris stood up and looked around for only a brief moment. His eyes brightened. "Quickly, this way!"

He turned into another corridor and quickly went to the end.

"Nice," Buck said sarcastically. "It's a dead end."

Aaris reached into a slight indentation on the wall. He turned the well-concealed handle and pulled. Inside was a long vertical tunnel with stairs.

"Quickly! Start climbing!"

Buck jumped into the tunnel and began to climb the long ladder. Aaris quickly followed and latched the door behind them. "How far does this go?" Buck asked.

"All the way to the top of the ship."

"Great," he mumbled.

"But we don't need to go that far."

"Good. How far do we need to go?"  
"About thirty-seven floors."

Buck stopped and looked down between his legs. "Are you serious? Why is it never easy?"

When they reached the right floor, Aaris found the door and they exited into a quiet corridor. Buck smiled as he rubbed his biceps.

"Well, it's a little quieter here." He breathed heavily. "Man, talk about a workout. That's too much like exercise. So where do we go from here?"

Aaris pointed down the hall. "Go all the way down and then turn left. That will lead you to the hangar."

"Hey, where are you going?"

"There is something I have to do. We will part here. Thank you, Buck."

"For what?"

"For showing me a brief glimpse of the warrior inside of you."

Buck extended his hand. Hesitantly Aaris put out his hand as well. Buck grasped Aaris and shook his hand strongly. "Let's just hope you never have to become a warrior yourself."

He nodded. "Good luck, Buck."

"Thanks for your help."

Aaris turned and quickly headed down the hall. Buck watched for only a moment before turning and heading for the hangar.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

As soon as Buck reached the hangar, he turned and shot the control panel beside the doors. They closed quickly behind him.

"That should keep them out of here!"

He raced across the hangar, shooting everyone he saw until all the Gaussians were lying on the floor. He quickly entered the hatch of the shuttle.

"Wilma!"

"Buck!"

He noticed Bill sitting in the pilot's seat. He nodded in approval. "Are we ready to get out of here?"

She latched herself into one of the seats. "Am I ever? Don't ever ask me to do something so disgusting again."

"Sorry, Wilma. Hey, wait a minute! That wasn't my idea!"

"I know. Let's just go."

Buck hopped into the copilot's seat. Quickly his hands flew over the controls to bring the shuttle back to life. He tapped the final switch, but nothing happened. His eyes widened in alarm.

"Buck, what is it?"  
"It won't start!"

"Try it again."

He repeated the process with the same result. He threw up his hands in disgust. "It's no good! The controls are locked out!"

"What do you mean 'locked out'? What do we do now?"

Buck looked around the cockpit desperately. Suddenly Wilma saw the answer. She pointed across the hangar. "That's our way out!"

Buck followed her finger pointing to a Gaussian scout ship across the hangar. "We can't leave the shuttle here! What about Bill?"

"We can use the scout ship's tractor beam to pull it out!"

Buck nodded. "Yeah, good thinking!"

Wilma stood up and patted Buck on the shoulder. "You go get the scout ship ready. I'll finish up here."

"With what?"

"Hooking Bill back up to the shuttle controls, changing the auto navigational computers for Earth just in case we get separated…"

Buck nodded. "Okay. But don't take too long!"

He quickly went back to the hatch. Just as he was about to exit, he turned to see Wilma bending over the apparently oblivious body of his past self. Ever so slightly she caressed his lips with her fingers before kissing him softly. She then replaced the space helmet over his head and latched it into place.

Suddenly Buck's eyes opened widely as a flood of images came rushing into his brain. He nearly fell to the floor of the hangar. He shook his head violently to clear his head. Somehow he managed to get across the hangar and to the scout ship. He inspected the controls briefly before figuring out how to start the engines. A few minutes later Wilma entered the cockpit and jumped into the copilot's seat.

"Ready! Let's go!"

Buck simply sat there, staring blankly at Wilma. She turned to look at him. "What? Buck? BUCK!"

He shook his head again violently, then turned toward his controls. He activated the tractor beam onto the shuttle and then moved the scout ship to the launch tube.

"I hope this works!"  
The ship screamed down the launch tube and into space. Just as the scout ship reached the last accelerator, a slight muffled explosion sounded and the ship lurched forward rapidly. When they were clear of the warship, he checked the instruments before him. His body froze as he turned to look at Wilma.

"What was that?" Wilma asked.

"Check your console," he said slowly.

"Why? What's wrong?"

Buck took a deep breath. "I don't see the shuttle.

"What?"

She checked her instruments, and then the sensors and scanners. Her face was pale as she turned back to face Buck.

"The tractor beam's been disabled!"

"Ours or the warship's?"

"Ours. That bump we felt in the launch tube was the tractor beam. According to the sensors, the space shuttle was too heavy for our tractor beam, especially at high acceleration. I think the shuttle successfully entered the launch tube, but I have no idea where it went from there."

Buck turned to his console. "I'm gonna check the infrared scanners."

"This close to the warship? Don't you think that will skew any readouts you get?"

"I have to try!"

The cockpit fell into silence as both pilots tried desperately to find the missing space shuttle. Buck turned the scout ship around until he was flying laterally across the front of the massive warship. Suddenly he pointed to the radar in front of him.

"There!"

Wilma checked her infrared scanners where he had pointed. Her eyes expanded. "Buck? You might want to see this."

"Hang on, I'm gonna get visual confirmation. I think I found it… yes, there it is!"

"Buck, I really think you need to see this."

He moved the scout ship into a parallel trajectory. He looked into the cockpit of the space shuttle. "Oh my God," he whispered. "He's-"

"Frozen," they said in unison.

They turned to look at each other. She pointed to the readout on her console. He moved his head forward to get a better look at it. "How is that possible?"  
"I think the blowback from the tractor beam sucked all the power out of the ship," Wilma explained. The entire ship is… is frozen!"

Buck couldn't take his eyes off of the frozen shuttle. He breathed deeply and slowly for several minutes until the sound of an alarm penetrated his senses.

"Buck, we have company," Wilma informed him.

He forced himself to look away from the shuttle and to his radar. He shook his head once. "I see them. It looks like there's five of them."

"Does this thing have any weapons?"  
Buck clenched his fists and teeth as he took one last glimpse of Ranger Three. "We're going to find out. First thing we need to do is lead them away from the shuttle. Hang on to your hat, Wilma. I'm gonna see what this thing'll do!"

He jerked on the controls roughly. Rapidly the ship turned and accelerated away from the massive warship. The ship sped in silence for several minutes until Wilma found a subroutine on her console. She tapped a few buttons, then looked up from her controls.

"I think I found the weapons."

She pressed a button on the arm of her chair. A blue flash of light appeared from somewhere below them. She grinned slightly.

"I found the weapons."

"Good."

"They're gaining on us."

"Yeah, I noticed that. We're carrying some extra weight."

"Do you want me to get out?" she asked.

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Just until I take care of these guys," he replied.

"You just worry about flying. I'll take weapons control."

Buck pulled back on his controls to reverse his course. Quickly he sped into the path of his pursuers. "Take them out, Wilma!"

She fired as quickly as she could. Two of the oncoming ships exploded immediately while the other three broke off their formation. Buck expertly maneuvered into position behind one of the ships and Wilma easily picked him off. Just then the ship rocked slightly side to side.

"They missed, but not by much!" Buck mentioned.

He grasped the controls harder and almost willed the ship to do an aerial flip right behind his closest pursuer. Again Wilma fired the laser to extinguish one more threat.

"One more," she breathed.

Buck banked, rolled, and flipped the scout ship every which way he knew how, and two ways he didn't think possible. Twice the enemy pilot fired at them, but both times Buck was able to avoid the lasers. On the third occasion, however, they weren't quite so lucky. The ship rocked violently briefly.

"Buck, we're losing power."

"I'm not done yet!"

Buck made one more desperate maneuver and managed to finally get behind the enemy ship.

"This guy is good," he mumbled. "But not good enough!"

He finally got in behind the final ship and Wilma fired the laser. The last ship exploded into a giant fireball.

"Yeah!" Buck yelled.

He turned the ship around to head back toward the warship.

"Buck, where are you going?"

"To find the shuttle."

She rested her hand on his arm. "We're losing power. We don't have enough to find him again. Our fight has taken us so far away from the warship that we probably don't have enough power to get there. We should have enough to get back to Earth, but not much more than that."

"Are you suggesting that we leave him back there?"  
"He's safe. We were lucky to find him. The only reason we found the shuttle is because we were looking for it. It has no heat signature, no radio beacon, and the warship has no sensors. He's probably better off than we are."

Buck closed his eyes briefly. Finally he sighed and turned the ship around. "Next stop planet Earth."


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

"Entering Earth orbit."

Buck remained quiet. He simply closed his eyes and let his head fall back into the seat. Wilma gently rested her hand on his arm.

"Buck, what is it? You've barely said a word since we left that warship."

"So?"

"So it isn't like you."

He sighed heavily. He turned his head slightly to look at her out of the corner of his eye. "I know you."

She furrowed her brows and grinned unsurely. "I should hope so by now," she replied hesitantly.

He shook his head. "That's not what I mean. Wilma, what was I like when I first got back to Earth? Do you remember?"

"Of course I do. You were really out of it. I thought you were barbaric."  
He let his eyes drift to the ceiling. "There have always been lapses in my memory ever since I came out my suspended animation. I always wondered why I could remember what I had for breakfast the morning of my launch, but I couldn't remember the launch itself. I could remember what I had for dinner the night before with Jennifer, but I couldn't remember any of my flight after takeoff until Ardala and Kane revived me on the Draconia. Both Doctor Huer and Theo assured me that it probably had something to do with the trauma of my five hundred year coma and that it might return someday."

She looked at him concerned. "Has it?"

He nodded once. "Some of it."  
"That's great! So what do you remember?"  
He lifted his head and turned to look at her. "You."

Her eyes widened. "What?"  
He nodded. "When I was leaving the shuttle on the warship, I turned and saw you kiss him just before you put the space helmet on him. Call me crazy if you want, but I remember that! I'd always seen glimpses of images, which I could never explain or latch on to… until it all hit me at once. I remember lying on a cold, hard lab table and being poked and prodded. I remember being drugged by the Gaussians, by you, by me. I could never figure out why I could see images of myself as if I were looking in third person. Everything is a little vague, but it's all there!"

"But how is that possible?"  
Buck shrugged. "I don't know. But somehow I remember everything now, more or less. And believe it or not, everything's happening exactly as I remember it, at least the images I've seen all match."

Wilma noticed a light flashing on the console. She tapped a button. "Incoming video message."  
"Video message? From who?"  
"You're not going to believe this."

She tapped the button again. Suddenly the tiny view screen between the seats flashed to show the image of a man. "I am Captain Arnogg of the Gaussian Warship Archeas. You are Captain Rogers and Colonel Deering?"  
Buck and Wilma exchanged unknowing looks before Buck tapped a button underneath the screen. "This is Captain Rogers."

"Captain Rogers, do you realize the damage you've done?"

He shrugged. "Yeah. Bombs tend to do that when they're left beside an unprotected bank of computers."

"That's not what I mean. That damage can be repaired. I'm talking about the assassinations of Minister Turon and Deputy Minister Kentara. That is the blatant disregard of protocol and a cause for war."

"First of all, I have no idea what happened to Deputy Minister Kentara. Second of all, you declared war on Earth a long time before you ever saw me. Maybe next time you shouldn't let Death enter through the front door."

"If you think you're little episode here has saved your planet, you are gravely mistaken. I plan to commence the execution of all life on your planet immediately. And then I will stand in the office of your president and scream victory until the sun sets. My crew and I will take control of your planet and transform it into the crown of the known galaxy! Finally we will create a monument to our fallen Ministers that will be the crowning achievement of known civilization! The magnitude of our monuments will dwarf everything on your planets, including your so-called Great Pyramids! Revel in your victory, Captain. Because Death is coming for you!"

The screen went blank. Wilma looked at her console and shook her head. "Buck, the warship just showed up on radar. It's moving again. It will be here in… thirty minutes," she said softly.

Buck slammed his fist against his console. "And when it gets here, every living being on Earth will be wiped out of existence," he said hollowly. Again he slammed his fist against the console. "I tried to stop the holocaust… but all I did was make it worse. Instead of stopping the holocaust, I managed to accelerate the annihilation of every living creature on the planet."

The cockpit became silent for several moments. Buck leaned back into his seat. "You know, I just remembered something Jennifer did on our last date together. I made a comment and she put her hand to my forehead like this," he demonstrated on Wilma. "Then she said, 'Nope, still no fever. Are you sure you're fine?' I never thought about it before, but now I realize what she was talking about. Do you know what it means?"

Wilma shook her head. "I have no idea."

Buck nearly stood up in his harness. "It means that she saw me earlier that day! That's what she was talking about! She saw ME! Not him, not the Buck she knew! She saw ME!" He slammed his fist against his chest several times. "She saw ME!"

Wilma tried to soothe Buck by placing her hand on his arm. "Buck, you said that everything was happening as you remembered it?"

He nodded wanly. "Yeah."

"You're always fond of saying that everything happens for a reason. What if the reason you're remembering everything as it happened before means that we were here before?"

"Wilma, you're not making any sense. What the hell are you talking about?"

"What if that means that we're supposed to be here? What if we were here… in the past? What if it means that we're supposed to be right here, right now?"

He shook his head. "I'm still not following. I told you time travel confuses me."

Wilma sighed. "Buck, how many people survived the holocaust?"

He shrugged. "Hard to say. Overall?"

She nodded.

"I don't know. Maybe ten thousand."

"How many people will die if the Gaussian warship gets here?"

"Everyone."

"How many is that?"

"Over six billion."

Wilma nodded. "You said that everything was happening exactly as you remembered it."

"Yeah. Wilma, what are you getting at?" he asked impatiently.

"What if we weren't sent here to _prevent_ the holocaust?" she asked slowly.

"Then why were we…" Suddenly his eyes nearly exploded out of his sockets. "No," he whispered. "You can't be serious!"

She simply closed her eyes and lowered her head. Buck unstrapped himself from the seat and nearly jumped onto Wilma. He put both hands on her shoulders and shook her violently.

"No! No way!" he screamed.

She put her hands on his chest to push him away. "Buck! It's the only way!" she screamed back. "We are the only ones who can stop the total annihilation of the planet Earth! We are the only ones who can stop the Gaussians from destroying the Earth!"

"By doing it ourselves?" he asked unbelievingly. "What kind of plan is that?"

"You said it yourself! Everything was happening exactly as you remembered! Because everything has happened exactly the way it was supposed to! We know now how your shuttle was frozen! We were here five hundred years ago!"

"And we caused the holocaust?"

"It all fits! It all makes sense!"

"I don't know, Wilma. So you're saying that you and I started the holocaust?"

"It's either us or Captain Ahab!"

"Arnogg."

"Whatever! Buck, if we do nothing, Earth dies!"

"And if we do something, Earth dies! Talk about a Catch-22."

"Buck, the holocaust doesn't destroy the Earth!"

"It might as well have. You've seen your Earth and you've seen my Earth. Tell me it wasn't destroyed!"

"But the people survived! Some people survived! If Captain Ahab-"

"Arnogg."

"Whatever! If that warship gets here everyone dies! Everyone!"

Buck closed his eyes for a moment. "Wilma, do you realize what you're asking me to do?"

She closed her eyes and lowered her head. "Yes. Yes, I do, Buck. I wish I didn't have to."

"You're asking me to kill a hundred million people in the next thirty minutes. Within six months two billion will be dead. Six months after that another three billion die. Not even Stalin managed anything like that! I'd be the biggest butcher in the entire history of humanity! Wilma, I can't do it."

"Buck, if the holocaust doesn't start in the next thirty minutes… twenty-five minutes, Captain Ahab, Arnogg, will kill six billion people like that," she said, snapping her fingers. "There will never be survivors of the holocaust; there will never be a Doctor Huer; there will never be a Doctor Theopolis; there will never be a Twiki… and there will never be a Colonel Wilma Deering. Buck, I'm begging you."

"But you're asking me to kill six billion people."

She shook her head. "I'm asking you to _save_ six billion people; more than six billion people. I'm asking you to save everyone who will be born after the holocaust. I'm asking you to save the people who rebuild New Chicago, New Phoenix, New London. I'm asking you to save the people who will rebuild planet Earth! Because we do rebuild! We rebuild and return to the stars! We will rebuild stronger and no one will ever threaten to destroy us again!"

He closed his eyes. "But you're asking me to kill… Mom… Dad… Jennifer… everyone I've ever known and loved."

"No. I'm asking you to save them. If we do nothing, then they will die. But if we do this they will live on… because you live on. They will continue to live." She pressed her hand against his chest. "They live on… in here."

Buck could barely see Wilma through the tears streaming down his cheek. Slowly he returned to his seat. He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he tapped a button on the console to bring up a virtual map of the globe. He paused for a moment, then put his finger on the map somewhere in the Midwest of the United States. A red dot appeared. He continued to press certain areas on the map. Everywhere he touched left a red dot on the map. After making a dozen or so marks, he moved his hand to the other side of the world. He took a deep breath and slowly released it. When he opened his eyes, his finger made circles around the cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg. He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out the electronic manipulator that Theo had given to him not so long ago. He glanced at Wilma. She nodded once, placed her hand in his and squeezed tightly, and finally closed her eyes. Buck closed his eyes, bowed his head, and took a deep breath before beginning to speak softly and slowly.

"Our Father which art in Heaven. Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom… and the power… and the glory for ever and ever… Amen."

"Amen," Wilma echoed.

He opened his eyes. Through the tears, he grasped the pen and depressed the switch at the top. Almost instantly the map disappeared. Once more Buck closed his eyes and bowed his head.

"It is done."

Below them Wilma could see the trails of exhaust from the dozens of missiles climbing into the air. Eventually they stopped climbing and began to arc back to Earth. She squeezed his hand again, but he didn't feel it.

"Theirs not to reason why," he said hollowly, almost inaudibly. "Theirs but to do and die. Into the Valley of Death rode the six billion."

He took another deep breath, wiped the tears from his eyes. He looked at the electronic manipulator for a moment before throwing it against the console as hard as he could. Once more he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

"And when he opened the Fourth Seal, I heard the voice of the Fourth Beast say, 'Come and See.' And I looked and behold a pale horse. And his name that sat on Him was Death and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them… to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death."

He turned to look at Wilma. "I always wondered what the Angel of Death looked like." He took a long, deep breath, then turned to look out the view screen. "Now I know."


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The small monitor flashed to life. "Earthling!" Captain Arnogg screamed. "What have you done?"

Buck pointed toward the planet. "There's Earth," he breathed softly. "If you want it, go get it."

"You've ruined everything! You've poisoned your own world! Do you realize how many people you just killed? Your own people!"

"He knows," Wilma screamed. "But you would have killed more, isn't that right, Captain Ahab? Earth belongs to US! Not to you!"

"Hmmmph. Fine, you can have your blasted Earth. It means nothing to us now. I hope you're happy. Helm; take us back to the stargate. I believe we're done here. And just for the record, it's Captain Arnogg."

The screen went blank. Wilma followed the progress of the ship on her radar until it simply disappeared. "They're gone."

"Back to Gauss, I suppose."

Wilma nodded. "Buck, we're running low on power."

He shrugged, sighed. Reluctantly he sat up in the seat. "Fine. I've had enough of this view anyway."

He eased the scout ship out of orbit and headed for the moon. He moved the scout ship into a crater and let it come to rest. Slowly he began switching off the ship's systems. Finally he let his head fall into the chair one last time.

"Why did you park in a crater on the Lunar South Pole?"

"So I didn't have to look at Earth any more."

She nodded in understanding. "So what do we do now?"

"We sit here until we run out of oxygen. Then we go to sleep. Kind of fitting, don't you think? The people who start the holocaust… die peacefully…in a crater on the moon."

Wilma paused for the longest moment before finally saying softly, "We saved Earth."

Buck showed no sign of movement with the possible exception of an ever so slight facial twitch. "Who's going to save us?"

She took a deep breath and nodded. The cockpit fell silent.

Bright light suddenly flooded the cockpit. Buck blinked several times until he at last recognized where he was. Frantically he looked around him as if he'd never seen the inside of a starfighter before. When he looked to his left, he was surprised to see a familiar face also dazedly looking around.

"Wilma?"

"Buck? What happened? Where are we?"  
"We are currently flying over what used to be the Atlantic Ocean," came a mechanical voice from behind them.

They both jerked their heads around to see Twiki and Doctor Theopolis exactly where they were supposed to be. Unsurely, they looked at each other and cocked their heads to the side, coincidentally the same side.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Beep-be-de-de-beep."

"You are correct, Twiki. It appears that both Captain Rogers and Colonel Deering are suffering from some side effects of the experiment."

"Side effects?" Wilma asked. "Well, yeah! The last thing I remember, Buck and I were on the moon."

"The moon?" Theo asked.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: how romantic!"

"No! We had just started the-"

"Wilma!" Buck said excitedly. "Check this out!"

She jerked around to face Buck. "What?"

He carefully made a throat slashing gesture with his right hand, making sure that Twiki and Theo couldn't see. Then he pointed out the view screen. "What do you make of that?"

She waved her hand nonchalantly. "It's nothing."

Buck nodded. "I could have sworn it was the Flying Dutchman."

She turned to face Doctor Theopolis. "So how did the experiment go?"  
"Splendid!" Doctor Avery's voice sounded over the radio. "It was an unmitigated success! Of course, we still have some work to do, but everything is performing exactly as expected and hoped!"

"Uh, Great. So how long did the experiment last?" she wondered.

"We were invisible for thirty three point eight three two seconds," Theo replied.

Buck jerked his head around. "Huh? Thirty-three seconds? Is that all?"

"Thirty-three point eight three two," Theo corrected.

"How did we stop? I don't remember disengaging the device!"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: I turned it off."

"Yes, I had Twiki disengage the device. You and Captain Rogers appeared to be in a trance-like state. You were unresponsive throughout the experiment."

Suddenly an alarm sounded throughout the cockpit. Buck grabbed the controls tightly as the ship began to vibrate and then rotate.

"What's happening?" Avery asked.

"There's a problem with stabilizer number two," Buck said sharply. "I'm having a tough time holding it together!"

The starfighter rotated again and again. Finally Buck shouted, "I've lost control! We have to eject!"

"Again?" Wilma asked.

Buck popped the canopy. As the parachutes deployed, he watched the starfighter slam and explode into what used to be the French Alps.

The rescue shuttle rolled to a stop in the center of the hangar. Even before the shuttle was stopped, Doctor Avery was rushing to where he calculated the exit ramp would stop. He was close. The ramp opened and Buck, Wilma, and Twiki with Doctor Theopolis still strapped to his neck began to walk down toward the hangar floor. Doctor Huer quickly moved across the hangar to stand beside Avery.

"Captain Rogers!" Avery shouted above the sound of the shuttle's engines, which hadn't completely shut off yet. "I demand to know what happened!"

"Do you, now?" he said glibly.

"What happened?"

"We crashed into the side of a mountain, just barely escaping with our lives!" Buck snapped. "That's what happened!"

"B-But, do you know how long it took us to get a working prototype of this scale? Years! Years! And you destroy it on the first flight! Do you know how long it will take to make another one?"

Buck stopped and glared at Doctor Avery. "I don't give a damn," he said through clenched teeth.

"Captain Rogers! I demand an explanation!"

Buck threw his arm up, sending Avery's clipboard flying fifteen feet into the air. He then grabbed Avery by the lab coat and held him three inches off the hangar floor.

"Back off, Doctor," he said through still-clenched teeth. "It's been a long day."

Buck let go of the doctor and headed toward the hangar exit. Avery turned to Doctor Huer.

"Did you see that? Your pilot assaulted me! Arrest this man immediately for assault! Court-martial him for insubordination! He deliberately flew my prototype into that mountain to ruin my experiment!"

Wilma stepped softly to stand in front of the older man. "Doctor Avery, have you ever flown a starfighter before?"

"Well, no," he said after a moment's hesitation.

She nodded. "Then good luck proving that accusation in court."

She began to follow Buck. Avery turned to Huer again.

"Arrest her too! She's in collusion with the captain! They are both conspiring against me!"

Wilma stopped and whirled on her heels. "Doctor Avery, I suggest you drop it before I drop you. Do I make myself clear?"  
"What? Are you making a threat?"

She sighed heavily. "I'm with Buck. It's been a long day."

"But Colonel," Huer started. "It's only noon."

She shook her head and turned around. "To you, maybe. To Buck and me: it's been a long day. A very long day."

"Colonel Deering?" Doctor Huer called.

She stopped and turned.

"I want you and Buck to go to the medical facilities to get checked out. Just routine, you understand."

She simply nodded, turned and rushed to catch up with Buck.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Buck heard the buzzer, but decided to ignore it. However, the door opened anyway and Wilma walked in. She looked around the dark apartment until she noticed Buck lying on his couch. The door closed as she walked across the apartment. She picked up a chair from the kitchenette and carried it the several feet to the couch, and then sat down.

"How long are you going to lay here in the dark?"

He shrugged. "Until the pain goes away."

"But we don't even know if what we experienced was real," she argued. "It could have just been a causal effect from the experiment."

"Did you come here to cheer me up? Because it's not working."

"You did wreck the starfighter on purpose, didn't you?"

Buck remained silent for a long moment. "If what we went through was real, no one else should go through that."

"What if it wasn't real?"

"They still shouldn't go through that. Is that why you're here?"

She shook her head. "No, actually I came here with some information. You may or may not be interested, though."

"I'm not. No offense, Wilma, but please go away."

"Hey, I went through the same thing you did."

Buck sighed deeply. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, Wilma. What's your information?"

She opened the envelope she had carried with her. "It's about the Gaussians."

"I thought you said they were very secretive."

"They are, but you know me, Buck! I can be very persuasive when I need to be. Anyway, I got an account of some of their history. Approximately five hundred years ago, the planet of Gauss underwent some political upheaval."

Buck sat up slowly. "Political upheaval?"  
She nodded. "A massive civil war. There were two factions involved."  
"There usually are with civil wars," Buck said dryly.

"On the one side was a group of military leaders. Guess who their leader was?"

"Minister Turon," he replied sarcastically.

"Exactly!"

Buck's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

"Minister Turon, by all accounts, was a military genius who used the Gaussian resources to expand their territories eight hundred percent. He conquered at least five worlds, which they still rule over to this day."

"Conquered," he said sarcastically.

She paused. "Yeah, I know. But as the story goes, he would be present at all their crucial and deciding battles. He was feared and respected by all. But on his last flight of conquest, he died in battle."

"He died in battle?"

"I know, it gets better. That's just the official record. I dug a little deeper. In reality, he was supposedly poisoned by a slave girl from another planet. On the same day, his deputy minister Kentara was found murdered and hanging from his bathroom ceiling. And according to this, Turon's main ally was a captain named Arnogg. He was also found murdered the next day, stabbed in the heart. When the ship returned to Gauss, a massive civil war broke out. They fought for eight years. When the fighting ended, all the military leaders who had served under Minister Turon were executed. Guess who became President."

Buck shook his head. "Vaahn?"

"You're good at this. And his vice-president was a war hero named Aaris."

Buck smiled, the first time in days. "Aaris, huh? Good for him. So he did get a chance to become a warrior."

"You knew him?"

"He was the one who helped me disable the sensors. That's assuming, of course, that what we experienced was real and not just fantasy."

Wilma closed her file. "There is one way to find out."

"And how's that? Take another ride in the ol' time machine?" he asked sarcastically.

She shook her head. "Nope. If we were really there in 1987, there is one piece of evidence that would still be in existence, and it would be very well preserved."

"If it was on Earth, it wouldn't be very well preserved," Buck stated.

"It wasn't on the Earth."

Buck suddenly figured out what she was talking about. "The scout ship," he whispered.

She smiled broadly. "Do you know what this means?"

He stood rapidly. "We're going to the moon."

Slowly the starfighter approached the moon, much slower than it normally would. Wilma didn't question the speed of the fighter, however. Deep down inside she wasn't sure if she wanted to know what lay in the crater. Time seemed to stop as the starfighter inched over the lip of the crater. Neither pilot nor copilot realized they were holding their breath until they both gasped at the same time. Buck didn't have to point. He knew Wilma could see it too. Directly in the center of the crater lay a battle-worn Gaussian Scout Ship.

Buck turned to Wilma. "It looks like Vaahn was wrong about one thing."

"How so?"  
Buck sighed. "He said we would change the future of one world. We ended up changing the future of two."

The cockpit fell into silence.

**THE END**


	27. Epilogue

Author's Epilogue

This was by far the hardest story I have ever written in my life. I am the biggest Buck Rogers fan in the world. I can't even begin to explain the impression he made on me as a 12 year old boy. He was my original inspiration to begin writing. I am a purist. I would never want to tarnish the Buck Rogers universe. When I began writing this, I had no intentions of having Buck be the cause of the holocaust. I intended him to be there, trying to stop it but failing miserably. When I posted the first two chapters, they were the only two chapters that I had written at the time. In fact, I made a comment to my wife when I posted them that I might be in trouble. I like to be at least 5 chapters ahead of the story before I start posting. Please believe me when I tell you that I didn't know it was going to end this way.

When I write, I don't know where the story is going to take me. I believe that the stories I tell are alive. They are as alive as you are. They tell me where they want to go. If I try to make the story go somewhere it doesn't want to go, then everything stops. That's why it took me so long to finish "Princess and the Please." When I allow the story to tell itself, then everything flows. The closer I got to Chapter 24, I had an inclination of where it was going, but when I actually got there…

Chapter 24 was THE hardest four pages I have ever written. I hope my pain is conveyed in the words. I know what Buck was going through, because I was going through it with him. I had no intention of having my boyhood hero destroy the planet. But in the course of the story, it was the only logical explanation. Please believe me when I tell you that I haven't had a good night's sleep since I wrote that chapter. Usually I lie in bed at night imagining the scenes of the next 2-3 chapters and getting an idea of where the story is going. That's all I get of my stories, little glimpses, before they actually come out. After I wrote chapter 24… I lie awake at night reliving what I wrote, unbelieving that I actually wrote it. In fact, it was the only time in my life that I've actually cried at something I wrote. This chapter really hit me hard, and I just want all of you to know that I did not post this lightly. It was the only way the story could go. That's where the story led me.

All I can say is, "I am truly sorry. Please stay with me." I've already started work on the next one, and I promise it'll be a little less heavy. It might not come as fast as this one has since my vacation is almost over (I'm a teacher!), but I'll try my best.

Thank you for all the reviews you have given me, both positive and negative. And together we will keep the Buck Rogers universe alive and well.

Sincerely your humble servant,

Keith M. Shaw


End file.
